A 

SOCIAL  HISTORY 

OF   THE 

AMERICAN  NEGRO 


BY 
BENJAMIN  BRAWLEY 

YOUR  NEGRO  NEIGHBOR 

A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  NEGRO 


A 

SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE 

AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Being 
A  HISTORY  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM 

IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

Including 

A    HISTORY  AND   STUDY   OF 

THE  REPUBLIC  OF  LIBERIA 


BY 
BENJAMIN  BRAWLEY 


iQeto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
192 1 

All  Rights  Reserved 


PRINTED   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES    OF   AMERICA 


^ 


.\y 


Copyright,  1921, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  printed.      Published  September,    1921. 


Press  of 
J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Company- 
New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 
NORWOOD  PENROSE  HALLOWELL 

PATRIOT 
1839-I914 


These    all    died    in    faith,    not    having    received 
the    promises,    but    having    seen    them    afar    off. 


/  K  A  O  ^  *'l 


Norwood  Penrose  Hallowell  was  born  in  Philadelphia  April  13, 
1839.  He  inherited  the  tradition  of  the  Quakers  and  grew  to  man- 
hood in  a  strong  anti-slavery  atmosphere.  The  home  of  his  father, 
Morris  L.  Hallowell — the  "House  called  Beautiful,"  in  the  phrase  of 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes — was  a  haven  of  rest  and  refreshment  for 
wounded  soldiers  of  the  Union  Army,  and  hither  also,  after  the 
assault  upon  him  in  the  Senate,  Charles  Sumner  had  come  for  succor 
and  peace.  Three  brothers  in  one  way  or  another  served  the  cause  of 
the  Union,  one  of  them,  Edward  N.  Hallowell,  succeeding  Robert 
Gould  Shaw  in  the  Command  of  the  Fifty-Fourth  Regiment  of  Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers.  Norwood  Penrose  Hallowell  himself,  a  natural 
leader  of  men,  was  Harvard  class  orator  in  1861 ;  twenty-five  years 
later  he  was  the  marshal  of  his  class;  and  in  1896  he  delivered  the  Me- 
morial Day  address  in  Sanders  Theater.  Entering  the  Union  Army 
with  promptness  in  April,  1861,  he  served  first  in  the  New  England 
Guards,  then  as  First  Lieutenant  in  the  Twentieth  Massachusetts,  won 
a  Captain's  commission  in  November,  and  within  the  next  year  took 
part  in  numerous  engagements,  being  wounded  at  Glendale  and  even 
more  severely  at  Antietam.  On  April  17,  1863,  he  became  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of  the  Fifty-Fourth  Massachusetts,  and  on  May  30 
Colonel  of  the  newly  organized  Fifty-Fifth.  Serving  in  the  invest- 
ment of  Fort  Wagner,  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  enter  the  fort  after 
its  evacuation.  His  wounds  ultimately  forced  him  to  resign  his  com- 
mission, and  in  November,  1863,  he  retired  from  the  service.  He 
engaged  in  business  in  New  York,  but  after  a  few  years  removed  to 
Boston,  where  he  became  eminent  for  his  public  spirit.  He  was  one 
of  God's  noblemen,  and  to  the  last  he  preserved  his  faith  in  the  Negro 
whom  he  had  been  among  the  first  to  lead  toward  the  full  heritage 
of  American  citizenship.    He  died  April  11,  1914. 


PREFACE 

In  the  following  pages  an  effort  is  made  to  give  fresh  treat- 
ment to  the  history  of  the  Negro  people  in  the  United  States, 
and  to  present  this  from  a  distinct  point  of  view,  the  social. 
It  is  now  forty  years  since  George  W.  Williams  completed  his 
History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America,  and  while  there  have 
been  many  brilliant  studies  of  periods  or  episodes  since  that 
important  work  appeared,  no  one  book  has  again  attempted 
to  treat  the  subject  comprehensively,  and  meanwhile  the  race 
has  passed  through  some  of  its  most  critical  years  in  America. 
The  more  outstanding  political  phases  of  the  subject,  especially 
in  the  period  before  the  Civil  War,  have  been  frequently  con- 
sidered; and  in  any  account  of  the  Negro  people  themselves 
the  emphasis  has  almost  always  been  upon  political  and  military 
features.  Williams  emphasizes  this  point  of  view,  and  his 
study  of  legal  aspects  is  not  likely  soon  to  be  superseded.  A 
noteworthy  point  about  the  history  of  the  Negro,  however,  is 
that  laws  on  the  statute-books  have  not  necessarily  been  re- 
garded, public  opinion  and  sentiment  almost  always  insisting 
on  being  considered.  It  is  necessary  accordingly  to  study  the 
actual  life  of  the  Negro  people  in  itself  and  in  connection  with 
that  of  the  nation,  and  something  like  this  the  present  work 
endeavors  to  do.  It  thus  becomes  not  only  a  Social  History 
of  the  race,  but  also  the  first  formal  effort  toward  a  History 
of  the  Negro  ProblerrTTn  America. 

With  this  aim  in  mind,  in  view  of  the  enormous  amount  of 
material,  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  confine  ourselves  within 
very  definite  limits.  A  thorough  study  of  all  the  questions 
relating  to  the  Negro  in  the  United  States  would  fill  volumes, 
for  sooner  or  later  it  would  touch  upon  all  the  great  problems 
of  American  life.  No  attempt  is  made  to  perform  such  a 
task;  rather  is  it  intended  to  fix  attention  upon  the  race  itself 
as  definitely  as  possible.     Even  with  this  limitation  there  are 

ix 


x  PREFACE 

some  topics  that  might  be  treated  at  length,  but  that  have  al- 
ready been  studied  so  thoroughly  that  no  very  great  modifica- 
tion is  now  likely  to  be  made  of  the  results  obtained.  Such 
are  many  of  the  questions  revolving  around  the  general  subject 
of  slavery.  Wars  are  studied  not  so  much  to  take  note  of  the 
achievement  of  Negro  soldiers,  vital  as  that  is,  as  to  record 
the  effect  of  these  events  on  the  life  of  the  great  body  of  people. 
Both  wars  and  slavery  thus  become  not  more  than  incidents  in 
the  history  of  the  ultimate  problem. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said,  it  is  natural  that  the  method 
of  treatment  should  vary  with  the  different  chapters.  Some- 
times it  is  general,  as  when  we  touch  upon  the  highways  of 
American  history.  Sometimes  it  is  intensive,  as  in  the  con- 
sideration of  insurrections  and  early  effort  for  social  progress ; 
and  Liberia,  as  a  distinct  and  much  criticized  experiment  in 
government  by  American  Negroes,  receives  very  special  atten- 
tion. For  the  first  time  also  an  effort  is  now  made  to  treat 
consecutively  the  life  of  the  Negro  people  in  America  for  the 
last  fifty  years. 

This  work  is  the  result  of  studies  on  which  I  have  been  en- 
gaged for  a  number  of  years  and  which  have  already  seen  some 
light  in  A  Short  History  of  the  American  Negro  and  The 
Negro  in  Literature  and  Art;  and  acquaintance  with  the  ele- 
mentary facts  contained  in  such  books  as  these  is  in  the  present 
work  very  largely  taken  for  granted.  I  feel  under  a  special 
debt  of  gratitude  to  the  New  York  State  Colonization  Society, 
which,  cooperating  with  the  American  Colonization  Society 
and  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Donations  for  Education  in  Li- 
beria, in  1920  gave  me  opportunity  for  some  study  at  first 
hand  of  educational  and  social  conditions  on  the  West  Coast 
of  Africa;  and  most  of  all  do  I  remember  the  courtesy  and 
helpfulness  of  Dr.  E.  C.  Sage  and  Dr.  J.  H.  Dillard  in  this  con- 
nection. In  general  I  have  worked  independently  of  Williams, 
but  any  student  of  the  subject  must  be  grateful  to  that  pioneer, 
as  well  as  to  Dr.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  who  has  made  contributions 
in  so  many  ways.  My  obligations  to  such  scholarly  dissertations 
as  those  by  Turner  and  Russell  are  manifest,  while  to  Mary 
Stoughton  Locke's  Anti^Slavery  in  America — a  model  mon- 


PREFACE  xi 

ograph — I  feel  indebted  more  than  to  any  other  thesis.  Within 
the  last  few  years,  of  course,  the  Crisis,  the  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  and  the  Negro  Year-Bo  ok  have  in  their  special  fields 
become  indispensable,  and  to  Dr.  Carter  G.  Woodson  and  Pro- 
fessor M.  N.  Work  much  credit  is  due  for  the  faith  which  has 
prompted  their  respective  ventures.  I  take  this  occasion  also 
to  thank  Professor  W.  E.  Dodd,  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago, who  from  the  time  of  my  entrance  upon  this  field  has 
generously  placed  at  my  disposal  his  unrivaled  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  the  South;  and  as  always  I  must  be  grateful  to 
my  father,  Rev.  E.  M.  Brawley,  for  that  stimulation  and  criti- 
cism which  all  my  life  have  been  most  valuable  to  me.  Finally, 
the  work  has  been  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  a  distinguished 
soldier,  who,  in  his  youth,  in  the  nation's  darkest  hour,  helped 
to  lead  a  struggling  people  to  freedom  and  his  country  to  vic- 
tory. It  is  now  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  all  who  are 
interested  in  the  nation's  problems,  and  indeed  in  any  effort 
that  tries  to  keep  in  mind  the  highest  welfare  of  the  country 
itself. 

Benjamin  Brawley. 
Cambridge, 

January  I,  1921. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

The  Coming  of  Negroes  to  America i 

1.  African    Origins I 

2.  The  Negro  in  Spanish  Exploration 3 

3.  Development  of  the  Slave-Trade 6 

4.  Planting  of  Slavery  in  the  Colonies 9 

5.  The  Wake  of  the  Slave-Ship 17 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Negro  in  the  Colonies 21 

1.  Servitude   and    Slavery 21 

2.  The  Indian,  the  Mulatto,  and  the  Free  Negro 26 

3.  First  Effort  toward  Social  Betterment 32 

4.  Early    Insurrections 39 

CHAPTER  III 

The    Revolutionary    Era 48 

1.  Sentiment  in  England  and  America 48 

2.  The  Negro  in  the  War 52 

3.  The  Northwest  Territory  and  the  Constitution 56 

(4.    Early   Steps   toward   Abolition 59 

5.  Beginning  of   Racial  Consciousness 66 

CHAPTER  IV 


i 


The  New  West,  the  South,  and  the  West  Indies 76 

1.  The  Cotton-Gin,  the  New  Southwest,  and  the  First  Fugitive 

Slave  Law yy 

2.  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  Louisiana,  and  the  Formal  Closing  of 

the  Slave-Trade 80 

3.  Gabriel's  Insurrection  and  the  Rise  of  the  Negro  Problem     .  86 

CHAPTER  V 

Indian  and  Negro 91 

1.  Creek,  Seminole,  and  Negro  to  1817:    The  War  of   1812     .       91 

2.  First  Seminole  War  and  the  Treaties  of  Indian  Spring  and 

Fort  Moultrie 95 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

3.  From  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Moultrie  to  the  Treaty  of  Payne's 

Landing v.     .      .     .  99 

4.  Osceola  and  the  Second  Seminole  War 107 

CHAPTER  VI 

Early  Approach  to  the  Negro  Problem 116 

1.  The  Ultimate  Problem  and  the  Missouri  Compromise    .     .     .  116 

2.  Colonization 120 

3.  Slavery 127 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Negro  Reply — I:  Revolt 132 

1.  Denmark  Vesey's  Insurrection 132 

2.  Nat  Turner's   Insurrection 140 

3.  The  Amistad  and  Creole  Cases 148 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Negro  Reply — II :  Organization  and  Agitation      ....  155 

1.  Walker's  "Appeal" 155 

2.  The  Convention  Movement 159 

3.  Sojourner  Truth  and  Woman  Suffrage 167 

CHAPTER  IX 

Liberia 172 

1.  The  Place  and  the  People 173 

2.  History .  ^4 

(a)  Colonization    and    Settlement 174 

(b)  The  Commonwealth  of  Liberia 188 

(c)  The    Republic    of    Liberia 191 

3.  International    Relations 202 

4.  Economic  and  Social  Conditions 207 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Negro  a  National  Issue 213 

1.  Current    Tendencies 213 

2.  The  Challenge  of   the  Abolitionists 219 

3.  The  Contest 227 

CHAPTER  XI 

Social  Progress,   1820- 1860 238 

CHAPTER  XII 

The  Civil  War  and  Emancipation 25a 


CONTENTS  xv 
CHAPTER  XIII 

PAGE 

The  Era  of  Enfranchisement 262 

1.  The   Problem 262 

2.  Meeting  the  Problem 264 

3.  Reaction:    The  Ku-Klux  Klan 272 

4.  Counter-Reaction:    The  Negro  Exodus 278 

5.  A  Postscript  on  the  War  and  Reconstruction 281 

CHAPTER  XIV 

The  Negro  in  the  New  South 287 

1.  Political  Life:    Disfranchisement 287 

2.  Economic   Life:     Peonage 291 

3.  Social    Life:     Proscription,    Lynching 294 

CHAPTER  XV 

"The    Vale    of    Tears,"    1890-1910 297 

1.  Current  Opinion  and  Tendencies 297 

2.  Industrial  Education:    Booker  T.  Washington 303 

3.  Individual  Achievement:    The  Spanish-American  War      .     .  307 

4.  Mob  Violence;  Election  Troubles;  The  Atlanta  Massacre     .  310 

5.  The  Question  of  Labor 320 

6.  Defamation;    Brownsville 325 

7.  The  Dawn  of  a  To-morrow 335 

CHAPTER  XVI 

The  Negro  in  the  New  Age     . 341 

1.  Character  of  the  Period 341 

2.  Migration;   East  St.  Louis 345 

3.  The  Great  War 350 

4.  High  Tension:    Washington,  Chicago,  Elaine 355 

5.  The  Widening  Problem 365 

CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Negro   Problem 372 

1.  World  Aspect 375 

2.  The  Negro  in  American  Life 379 

3.  Face   to   Face 386 


SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  NEGRO 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    COMING  OF   NEGROES  TO  AMERICA 

I.     African  Origins 

An  outstanding  characteristic  of  recent  years  has  been  an  in- 
creasing recognition  of  the  cultural  importance  of  Africa  to 
the  world.  From  all  that  has  been  written  three  facts  are 
prominent :  ( i )  That  at  some  time  early  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
perhaps  about  the  seventh  century,  there  was  a  considerable 
infiltration  of  Arabian  culture  into  the  tribes  living  below  the 
Sahara,  something  of  which  may  to-day  most  easily  be  seen 
among  such  people  as  the  Haussas  in  the  Soudan  and  the 
Mandingoes  along  the  West  Coast;  (2)  That,  whatever  in- 
fluences came  in  from  the  outside,  there  developed  in  Africa 
an  independent  culture  which  must  not  be  underestimated;  and 
(3)  That,  perhaps  vastly  more  than  has  been  supposed,  this 
African  culture  ha'd  to  do  with  early  exploration  and  coloniza- 
tion in  America.  The  first  of  these  three  facts  is  very  im- 
portant, but  is  now  generally  accepted  and  need  not  here  detain 
us.  For  the  present  purpose  the  second  and  third  demand 
more  attention. 

The  development  of  native  African  art  is  a  theme  of  never- 
ending  fascination  for  the  ethnologist.  Especially  have  strik- 
ing resemblances  between  Negro  and  Oceanian  culture  been 
pointed  out.  In  political  organization  as  well  as  certain  forms 
of  artistic  endeavor  the  Negro  people  have  achieved  creditable 
results,  and  especially  have  they  been  honored  as  the  originators 
of  the  iron  technique.*   It  has  further  been  shown  that  fetich- 

*  Note  article  "Africa"  in  New  International  Encyclopedia,  referring 
especially  to  the  studies  of  Von  Luschan. 

1 


2        SOCIAL1  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ism,  which  .is  Especially  wc  11  developed  along  the  West  Coast 
and  its  hinterland,  is  at  heart  not  very  different  from  the  mani- 
tou  beliefs  of  the  American  Indians;  and  it  is  this  connection 
that  furnishes  the  key  to  some  of  the  most  striking  results 
of  the  researches  of  the  latest  and  most  profound  student  of 
this  and  related  problems.* 

From  the  Soudan  radiated  a  culture  that  was  destined  to 
affect  Europe  and  in  course  of  time  to  extend  its  influence 
even  beyond  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  It  is  important  to  remember 
that  throughout  the  early  history  of  Europe  and  up  to  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century  the  approach  to  the  home  of  the  Negro 
was  by  land.  The  Soudan  was  thought  to  be  the  edge  of  the 
then  known  world;  Homer  speaks  of  the  Ethiopians  as  "the 
farthest  removed  of  men,  and  separated  into  two  divisions." 
Later  Greek  writers  carry  the  description  still  further  and 
speak  of  the  two  divisions  as  Eastern  and  Western — the  East- 
ern occupying  the  countries  eastward  of  the  Nile,  and  the 
Western  stretching  from  the  western  shores  of  that  river  to  the 
Atlantic  Coast.  "One  of  these  divisions,"  says  Lady  Lugard, 
"we  have  to  acknowledge,  was  perhaps  itself  the  original  source 
of  the  civilization  which  has  through  Egypt  permeated  the 
Western  world.  .  .  .  When  the  history  of  Negroland  comes 
to  be  written  in  detail,  it  may  be  found  that  the  kingdoms 
lying  toward  the  eastern  end  of  the  Soudan  were  the  home 
ot  races  who  inspired,  rather  than  of  races  who  received,  the 
traditions  of  civilization  associated  for  us  with  the  name  of 
ancient  Egypt."  f 

If  now  we  come  to  America,  we  find  the  Negro  influence 
upon  the  Indian  to  be  so  strong  as  to  call  in  question  all  current 
conceptions  of  American  archaeology  and  so  early  as  to  sug- 
gest the  coming  of  men  from  the  Guinea  Coast  perhaps  even 
before  the  coming  of  Columbus.J  The  first  natives  of  Africa 
to  come  were  Mandingoes ;  many  of  the  words  used  by  the 
Indians  in  their  daily  life  appear  to  be  not  more  than  corrup- 
tions or  adaptations  of  words  used  by  the  tribes  of  Africa; 

*  Leo  Wiener:  Africa  and  the  Discovery  of  America,  Vol.  I,  Innes  & 
Sons,  Philadelphia,  1920. 

t  A  Tropical  Dependency,  James  Nisbet  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  London,  1906,  p.  17. 
%  See  Wiener,  I,  178. 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA  3 

and  the  more  we  study  the  remains  of  those  who  lived  in 
America  before  1492,  and  the  far-reaching  influence  of 
African  products  and  habits,  the  more  must  we  acknowledge 
the  strength  of  the  position  of  the  latest  thesis.  This  whole 
subject  will  doubtless  receive  much  more  attention  from 
scholars,  but  in  any  case  it  is  evident  that  the  demands  of 
Negro  culture  can  no  longer  be  lightly  regarded  or  brushed 
aside,  and  that  as  a  scholarly  contribution  to  the  subject 
Wiener's  work  is  of  the  very  highest  importance. 


2.     The  Negro  in  Spanish  Exploration 

When  we  come  to  Columbus  himself,  the  accuracy  of  whose 
accounts  has  so  recently  been  questioned,  we  find  a  Negro, 
Pedro  Alonso  Nino,  as  the  pilot  of  one  of  the  famous  three 
vessels.  In  1496  Nino  sailed  to  Santo  Domingo  and  he  was 
also  with  Columbus  on  his  third  voyage.  With  two  men, 
Cristobal  de  la  Guerra,  who  served  as  pilot,  and  Luis  de  la 
Guerra,  a  Spanish  merchant,  in  1499  he  planned  what  proved 
to  be  the  first  successful  commercial  voyage  to  the  New  World. 

The  revival  of  slavery  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 
the  beginning  of  the  system  of  Negro  slavery  were  due  to 
the  commercial  expansion  of  Portugal  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  very  word  Negro  is  the  modern  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese form  of  the  Latin  niger.  In  1441  Prince  Henry 
sent  out  one  Gonzales,  who  captured  three  Moors  on  the 
African  coast.  These  men  offered  as  ransom  ten  Negroes 
whom  they  had  taken.  The  Negroes  were  taken  to  Lisbon  in 
1442,  and  in  1444  Prince  Henry  regularly  began  the  European 
trade  from  the  Guinea  Coast.  For  fifty  years  his  country 
enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the  traffic.  By  1474  Negroes  were 
numerous  in  Spain,  and  special  interest  attaches  to  Juan  de 
Valladolid,  probably  the  first  of  many  Negroes  who  in  time 
came  to  have  influence  and  power  over  their  people  under 
the  authority  of  a  greater  state.  He  was  addressed  as  "judge 
of  all  the  Negroes  and  mulattoes,  free  or  slaves,  which  are 
in  the  very  loyal  and  noble  city  of  Seville,  and  throughout 
the  whole  archbishopric  thereof."     After  1500  there  are  fre- 


4        SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

quent  references  to  Negroes,  especially  in  the  Spanish  West 
Indies.  Instructions  to  Ovando,  governor  of  Hispaniola,  in 
1 501,  prohibited  the  passage  to  the  Indies  of  Jews,  Moors,  or 
recent  converts,  but  authorized  him  to  take  over  Negro  slaves 
who  had  been  born  in  the  power  of  Christians.  These  orders 
were  actually  put  in  force  the  next  year.  Even  the  restricted 
importation  Ovando  found  inadvisable,  and  he  very  soon  re- 
quested that  Negroes  be  not  sent,  as  they  ran  away  to  the 
Indians,  with  whom  they  soon  made  friends.  Isabella  accord- 
ingly withdrew  her  permission,  but  after  her  death  Ferdinand 
reverted  to  the  old  plan  and  in  1505  sent  to  Ovando  seven- 
teen Negro  slaves  for  work  in  the  copper-mines,  where  the 
severity  of  the  labor  was  rapidly  destroying  the  Indians.  In 
15 10  Ferdinand  directed  that  fifty  Negroes  be  sent  immedi- 
ately, and  that  more  be  sent  later;  and  in  April  of  this  year 
over  a  hundred  were  bought  in  the  Lisbon  market.  This,  says 
Bourne,*  was  the  real  beginning  of  the  African  slave-trade 
to  America.  Already,  however,  as  early  as  1504,  a  consider- 
able number  of  Negroes  had  been  introduced  from  Guinea 
because,  as  we  are  informed,  "the  work  of  one  Negro  was 
worth  more  than  that  of  four  Indians."  In  1 513  thirty  Ne- 
groes assisted  Balboa  in  building  the  first  ships  made  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  of  America.  In  15 17  Spain  formally  entered 
upon  the  traffic,  Charles  V  on  his  accession  to  the  throne 
granting  "license  for  the  introduction  of  Negroes  to  the  num- 
ber of  four  hundred,"  and  thereafter  importation  to  the  West 
Indies  became  a  thriving  industry.  Those  who  came  in  these 
early  years  were  sometimes  men  of  considerable  intelligence, 
having  been  trained  as  Mohammedans  or  Catholics.  By  15 18 
Negroes  were  at  work  in  the  sugar-mills  in  Hispaniola,  where 
they  seem  to  have  suffered  from  indulgence  in  drinks  made 
from  sugarcane.  In  1521  it  was  ordered  that  Negro  slaves 
should  not  be  employed  on  errands  as  in  general  these  tended 
to  cultivate  too  close  acquaintance  with  the  Indians.  In  1522 
there  was  a  rebellion  on  the  sugar  plantations  in  Hispaniola, 
primarily  because  the  services  of  certain  Indians  were  discon- 
tinued. Twenty  Negroes  from  the  Admiral's  mill,  uniting 
with  twenty  others  who  spoke  the  same  language,  killed  a 
*  Spain  in  America,  Vol.  3  in  American  Nation  Series,  p.  270. 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA  5 

number  of  Christians.  They  fled  and  nine  leagues  away  they 
killed  another  Spaniard  and  sacked  a  house.  One  Negro,  as- 
sisted by  twelve  Indian  slaves,  also  killed  nine  other  Christians. 
After  much  trouble  the  Negroes  were  apprehended  and  sev- 
eral of  them  hanged.  It  was  about  1526  that  Negroes  were 
first  introduced  within  the  present  limits  of  the  United  States, 
being  brought  to  a  colony  near  what  later  became  Jamestown, 
Va.  Here  the  Negroes  were  harshly  treated  and  in  course  of 
time  they  rose  against  their  oppressors  and  fired  their  houses. 
The  settlement  was  broken  up,  and  the  Negroes  and  their 
Spanish  companions  returned  to  Hispaniola,  whence  they  had 
come.  In  1540,  in  Quivira,  in  Mexico,  there  was  a  Negro 
who  had  taken  holy  orders;  and  in  1542  there  were  estab- 
lished at  Guamanga  three  brotherhoods  of  the  True  Cross  of 
Spaniards,  one  being  for  Indians  and  one  for  Negroes. 

The  outstanding  instance  of  a  Negro's  heading  in  explora- 
tion is  that  of  Estevanico  (or  Estevanillo,  or  Estevan,  that  is, 
Stephen),  one  of  the  four  survivors  of  the  ill-fated  expedition 
of  De  Narvaez,  who  sailed  from  Spain,  June  17,  1527.  Hav- 
ing returned  to  Spain  after  many  years  of  service  in  the  New 
World,  Pamfilo  de  Narvaez  petitioned  for  a  grant,  and  ac- 
cordingly the  right  to  conquer  and  colonize  the  country  be- 
tween the  Rio  de  las  Palmas,  in  eastern  Mexico,  and  Florida 
was  accorded  him.*  His  force  originally  consisted  of  six 
hundred  soldiers  and  colonists.  The  whole  conduct  of  the 
expedition — incompetent  in  the  extreme — furnished  one  of 
the  most  appalling  tragedies  of  early  exploration  in  America. 
The  original  number  of  men  was  reduced  by  half  by  storms 
and  hurricanes  and  desertions  in  Santo  Domingo  and  Cuba, 
and  those  who  were  left  landed  in  April,  1528,  near  the  en- 
trance to  Tampa  Bay,  on  the  west  coast  of  Florida.  One 
disaster  followed  another  in  the  vicinity  of  P'ensacola  Bay  and 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  until  at  length  only  four  men  sur- 
vived. These  were  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza  de  Vaca;  Andres 
Dorantes  de  Carranza,  a  captain  of  infantry;  Alonzo  del  Cas- 

*  Frederick  W.  Hodge,  3,  in  Spanish  Explorers  in  the  Southern  United 
States,  1528- 1543,  in  "Original  Narratives  of  Early  American  History," 
Scnbner's,  New  York,  1907.  Both  the  Narrative  of  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza 
de  Vaca  and  the  Narrative  of  the  Expedition  of  Coronado,  by  Pedro  de 
Castenada,  are  edited  by  Hodge,  with  illuminating  introductions. 


6        SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

tillo  Maldonado;  and  Estevanico,  who  had  originally  come 
from  the  west  coast  of  Morocco  and  who  was  a  slave  of  Do- 
rantes.  These  men  had  most  remarkable  adventures  in  the 
years  between  1528  and  1536,  and  as  a  narrative  of  suffer- 
ing and  privation  Cabeza  de  Vaca's  Journal  has  hardly  an 
equal  in  the  annals  of  the  continent.  Both  Dorantes  and 
Estevanico  were  captured,  and  indeed  for  a  season  or  two  all 
four  men  were  forced  to*  sojourn  among  the  Indians.  They 
treated  the  sick,  and  with  such  success  did  they  work  that 
their  fame  spread  far  and  wide  among  the  tribes.  Crowds 
followed  them  from  place  to  place,  showering  presents  upon 
them.  With  Alonzo  de  Castillo,  Estevanico  sojourned  for 
a  while  with  the  Yguazes,  a  very  savage  tribe  that  killed  its 
own  male  children  and  bought  those  of  strangers.  He  at 
length  escaped  from  these  people  and  spent  several  months 
with  the  Avavares.  He  afterwards  went  with  De  Vaca  to 
the  Maliacones,  only  a  short  distance  from  the  Avavares,  and 
still  later  he  accompanied  Alonzo  de  Castillo  in  exploring  the 
country  toward  the  Rio  Grande.  He  was  unexcelled  as  a 
guide  who  could  make  his  way  through  new  territory.  In 
1539  he  went  with  Fray  Marcos  of  Nice,  the  Father  Pro- 
vincial of  the  Franciscan  order  in  New  Spain,  as  a  guide  to 
the  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,  the  villages  of  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  Zufii  Indians  in  western  New  Mexico.  Preceding 
Fray  Marcos  by  a  few  days  and  accompanied  by  natives  who 
joined  him  on  the  way,  he  reached  Hawikuh,  the  southern- 
most of  the  seven  towns.  Here  he  and  all  but  three  of  his 
Indian  followers  were  killed. 

3.     Development  of  the  Slave-Trade 

Portugal  and  Spain  having  demonstrated  that  the  slave- 
trade  was  profitable,  England  also  determined  to  engage 
in  the  traffic;  and  as  early  as  1530  William  Hawkins,  a  mer- 
chant of  Plymouth,  visited  the  Guinea  Coast  and  took  away  a 
few  slaves.  England  really  entered  the  field,  however,  with 
the  voyage  in  1562  of  Captain  John  Hawkins,  son  of  William, 
who  in  October  of  this  year  also  went  to  the  coast  of  Guinea. 
He  had  a  fleet  of  three  ships  and  one  hundred  men,  and  part- 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA '        7 

ly  by  the  sword  and  partly  by  other  means  he  took  three  hun- 
dred or  more  Negroes,  whom  he  took  to  Santo  Domingo  and 
sold  profitably.*  He  was  richly  laden  going  homeward  and 
some  of  his  stores  were  seized  by  Spanish  vessels.  Hawkins 
made  two  other  voyages,  one  in  1564,  and  another,  with  Drake, 
in  1567.  On  his  second  voyage  he  had  four  armed  ships,  the 
largest  being  the  Jesus,  a  vessel  of  seven  hundred  tons,  and  a 
force  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  men.  December  and  Jan- 
uary (1564-5")  he  spent  in  picking  up  freight,  and  by  sick- 
ness and  fights  with  the  Negroes  he  lost  many  of  his  men. 
Then  at  the  end  of  January  he  set  out  for  the  West  Indies. 
He  was  becalmed  for  twenty-one  days,  but  he  arrived  at  the 
Island  of  Dominica  March  9.  He  traded  along  the  Spanish 
coasts  and  on  his  return  to  England  he  touched  at  various 
points  in  the  West  Indies  and  sailed  along  the  coast  of  Florida. 
On  his  third  voyage  he  had  five  ships.  He  himself  was  again 
in  command  of  the  Jesus,  while  Drake  was  in  charge  of  the 
Judith,  a  little  vessel  of  fifty  tons.  He  got  together  between 
four  and  five  hundred  Negroes  and  again  went  to  Dominica. 
He  had  various  adventures  and  at  last  was  thrown  by  a  storm 
on  the  coast  of  Mexico.  Here  after  three  days  he  was  at- 
tacked by  a  Spanish  fleet  of  twelve  vessels,  and  all  of  his  ships 
were  destroyed  except  the  Judith  and  another  small  vessel,  the 
Minion,  which  was  so  crowded  that  one  hundred  men  risked 
the  dangers  on  land  rather  than  go  to  sea  with  her.  On  this 
last  voyage  Hawkins  and  Drake  had  among  their  companions 
the  Earls  of  Pembroke  and  Leicester,  who  were  then,  like 
other  young  Elizabethans,  seeking  fame  and  fortune.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  in  all  that  he  did  Hawkins  seems  to  have  had 
no  sense  of  cruelty  or  wrong.  He  held  religious  services 
morning  and  evening,  and  in  the  spirit  of  the  later  Cromwell 
he  enjoined  upon  his  men  to  "serve  God  daily,  love  one  an- 
other, preserve  their  victuals,  beware  of  fire,  and  keep  good 
company."  Queen  Elizabeth  evidently  regarded  the  opening 
of  the  slave-trade  as  a  worthy  achievement,  for  after  his 
second  voyage  she  made  Hawkins  a  knight,  giving  him  for 

*  Edward  E.  Hale  in  Justin  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History 
of  America,  III,  60. 


8        SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

a  crest  the  device  of  a  Negro's  head  and  bust  with  the  arms 
securely  bound. 

France  joined  in  the  traffic  in  1624,  and  then  Holland  and 
Denmark,  and  the  rivalry  soon  became  intense.  England, 
with  her  usual  aggressiveness,  assumed  a  commanding  po- 
sition, and,  much  more  than  has  commonly  been  supposed, 
the  Navigation  Ordinance  of  1651  and  the  two  wars  with 
the  Dutch  in  the  seventeenth  century  had  as  their  basis  the 
struggle  for  supremacy  in  the  slave-trade.  The  English  trade 
proper  began  with  the  granting  of  rights  to  special  companies, 
to  one  in  161 8,  to  another  in  1631,  and  in  1662  to  the  "Com- 
pany of  Royal  Adventurers,"  rechartered  in  1672  as  the 
"Royal  African  Company,"  to  which  in  1687  was  given  the 
exclusive  right  to  trade  between  the  Gold  Coast  and  the 
British  colonies  in  America.  James,  Duke  of  York,  was  in- 
terested in  this  last  company,  and  it  agreed  to  supply  the  West 
Indies  with  three  thousand  slaves  annually.  In  1698,  on  ac- 
count of  the  incessant  clamor  of  English  merchants,  the  trade 
was  opened  generally,  and  any  vessel  carrying  the  British 
flag  was  by  act  of  Parliament  permitted  to  engage  in  it  on 
payment  of  a  duty  of  10  per  cent  on  English  goods  exported 
to  Africa.  New  England  immediately  engaged  in  the  traffic, 
and  vessels  from  Boston  and  Newport  went  forth  to  the 
Gold  Coast  laden  with  hogsheads  of  rum.  In  course  of  time 
there  developed  a  three-cornered  trade  by  which  molasses 
was  brought  from  the  West  Indies  to  New  England,  made 
into  rum  to  be  taken  to  Africa  and  exchanged  for  slaves,  the 
slaves  in  turn  being  brought  to  the  West  Indies  or  the  South- 
ern colonies.*  A  slave  purchased  for  one  hundred  gallons 
of  rum  worth  £10  brought  from  £20  to  £50  when  offered 
for  sale  in  America. f  Newport  soon  had  twenty-two  still 
houses,  and  even  these  could  not  satisfy  the  demand.  Eng- 
land regarded  the  slave-trade  as  of  such  importance  that  when 
in  1 71 3  she  accepted  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  she  insisted  on 
having  awarded  to  her  for  thirty  years  the  exclusive  right  to 
transport  slaves  to  the  Spanish  colonies  in  America.  When  in 
the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  trade  became  fully 

*  Bogart :   Economic  History,  72. 
t  Coman :   Industrial  History,  78. 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA  9 

developed,  scores  of  vessels  went  forth  each  year  to  engage 
in  it;  but  just  how  many  slaves  were  brought  to  the  present 
United  States  and  how  many  were  taken  to  the  West  Indies 
or  South  America,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  In  1726  the  three 
cities  of  London,  Bristol,  and  Liverpool  alone  had  171  ships 
engaged  in  the  traffic,  and  the  profits  were  said  to  warrant  a 
thousand  more,  though  such  a  number  was  probably  never 
reached  so  far  as  England  alone  was  concerned.* 

4.     Planting  of  Slavery  in  the  Colonies 

It  is  only  for  Virginia  that  we  can  state  with  definiteness 
the  year  in  which  Negro  slaves  were  first  brought  to  an  Eng- 
lish colony  on  the  mainland.  When  legislation  on  the  subject 
of  slavery  first  appears  elsewhere,  slaves  are  already  present. 
"About  the  last  of  August  (1619),"  says  John  Rolfe  in  John 
Smith's  Generall  Historie,  "came  in  a  Dutch  man  of  warre, 
that  sold  us  twenty  Negars."  These  Negroes  were  sold  into 
servitude,  and  Virginia  did  not  give  statutory  recognition  to 
slavery  as  a  system  until  1661,  the  importations  being  too 
small  to  make  the  matter  one  of  importance.  In  this  year, 
however,  an  act  of  assembly  stated  that  Negroes  were  "incap- 
able of  making  satisfaction  for  the  time  lost  in  running  away 
by  addition  of  time" ;  f  and  thus  slavery  gained  a  firm  place  in 
the  oldest  of  the  colonies. 

Negroes  were  first  imported  into  Massachusetts  from  Bar- 
badoes  a  year  or  two  before  1638,  but  in  John  Winthrop's 
Journal,  under  date  February  26  of  this  year,  we  have  positive 
evidence  on  the  subject  as  follows :  "Mr.  Pierce  in  the  Salem 
ship,  the  Desire,  returned  from  the  West  Indies  after  seven 
months.  He  had  been  at  Providence,  and  brought  some  cot- 
ton, and  tobacco,  and  Negroes,  etc.,  from  thence,  and  salt 
from  Tertugos.  Dry  fish  and  strong  liquors  are  the  only 
commodities  for  those  parts.  He  met  there  two  men-of-war, 
sent  forth  by  the  lords,  etc.,  of  Providence  with  letters  of 
mart,  who  had  taken  divers  prizes  from  the  Spaniard  and 
many  Negroes."     It  was  in   1641   that  there  was  passed  in 

*  Ballagh  :     Slavery  in  Virginia,  12. 
t  Herring:     Statutes,  II,  26. 


io      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Massachusetts  the  first  act  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  this 
was  the  first  positive  statement  in  any  of  the  colonies  with 
reference  to  the  matter.  Said  this  act:  "There  shall  never 
be  any  bond  slavery,  villeinage,  nor  captivity  among  us,  un- 
less it  be  lawful  captives,  taken  in  just  wars,  and  such  strangers 
as  willingly  sell  themselves  or  are  sold  to  us,  and  these  shall 
have  all  the  liberties  and  Christian  usages  which  the  law  of  God 
established  in  Israel  requires."  This  article  clearly  sanctioned 
slavery.  Of  the  three  classes  of  persons  referred  to,  the  first 
was  made  up  of  Indians,  the  second  of  white  people  under 
the  system  of  indenture,  and  the  third  of  Negroes.  In  this 
whole  matter,  as  in  many  others,  Massachusetts  moved  in 
advance  of  the  other  colonies.  The  first  definitely  to  legalize 
slavery,  in  course  of  time  she  became  also  the  foremost  rep- 
resentative of  sentiment  against  the  system.  In  1646  one  John 
Smith  brought  home  two  Negroes  from  the  Guinea  Coast, 
where  we  are  told  he  "had  been  the  means  of  killing  near  a 
hundred  more."  The  General  Court,  "conceiving  themselves 
bound  by  the  first  opportunity  to  bear  witness  against  the 
heinous  and  crying  sin  of  man-stealing,"  ordered  that  the 
Negroes  be  sent  at  public  expense  to  their  native  country.* 
In  later  cases,  however,  Massachusetts  did  not  find  herself 
able  to  follow  this  precedent.  In  general  in  these  early  years 
New  England  was  more  concerned  about  Indians  than  about 
Negroes,  as  the  presence  of  the  former  in  large  numbers  was  a 
constant  menace,  while  Negro  slavery  had  not  yet  assumed 
its  most  serious  aspects. 

In  New  York  slavery  began  under  the  Dutch  rule  and  con- 
tinued under  the  English.  Before  or  about  1650  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company  brought  some  Negroes  to  New  Nether- 
land.  Most  of  these  continued  to  belong  to  the  company, 
though  after  a  period  of  labor  (under  the  common  system  of 
indenture)  some  of  the  more  trusty  were  permitted  to  have 
small  farms,  from  the  produce  of  which  they  made  return 
to  the  company.  Their  children,  however,  continued  to  be 
slaves.  In  1664  New  Netherland  became  New  York.  The 
next  year,  in  the  code  of  English  laws  that  was  drawn  up,  it 

*  Coffin :   Slave  Insurrections.  8. 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA        n 

was  enacted  that  "no  Christian  shall  be  kept  in  bond  slavery, 
villeinage,  or  captivity,  except  who  shall  be  judged  thereunto 
by  authority,  or  such  as  willingly  have  sold  or  shall  sell  them- 
selves." As  at  first  there  was  some  hesitancy  about  making 
Negroes  Christians,  this  act,  like  the  one  in  Massachusetts, 
by  implication  permitted  slavery. 

It  was  in  1632  that  the  grant  including  what  is  now  the 
states  of  Maryland  and  Delaware  was  made  to  George  Cal- 
vert, first  Lord  Baltimore.  Though  slaves  are  mentioned 
earlier,  it  was  in  1663-4  that  the  Maryland  Legislature  passed 
its  first  enactment  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  It  was  declared 
that  "all  Negroes  and  other  slaves  within  this  province,  and 
all  Negroes  and  other  slaves  to  be  hereinafter  imported 
into  this  province,  shall  serve  during  life;  and  all  children 
born  of  any  Negro  or  other  slave,  shall  be  slaves  as  their 
fathers  were,  for  the  term  of  their  lives." 

In  Delaware  and  New  Jersey  the  real  beginnings  of  slavery 
are  unusually  hazy.  The  Dutch  introduced  the  system  in  both 
of  these  colonies.  In  the  laws  of  New  Jersey  the  word  slaves 
occurs  as  early  as  1664,  and  acts  for  the  regulation  of  the 
conduct  of  those  in  bondage  began  with  the  practical  union 
of  the  colony  with  New  York  in  1702.  The  lot  of  the  slave 
was  somewhat  better  here  than  in  most  of  the  colonies.  Al- 
though the  system  was  in  existence  in  Delaware  almost  from 
the  beginning  of  the  colony,  it  did  not  receive  legal  recogni- 
tion until  1 72 1,  when  there  was  passed  an  act  providing  for 
the  trial  of  slaves  in  a  special  court  with  two  justices  and  six 
freeholders. 

As  early  as  1639  there  are  incidental  reference  to  Negroes 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  there  are  frequent  references  after  this 
date.*  In  this  colony  there  were  strong  objections  to  the 
importing  of  Negroes  in  spite  of  the  demand  for  them.  Penn 
in  his  charter  to  the  Free  Society  of  Traders  in  1682  enjoined 
upon  the  members  of  this  company  that  if  they  held  black 
slaves  these  should  be  free  at  the  end  of  fourteen  years,  the 
Negroes  then  to  become  the  company's  tenants. f  In  1688 
there    originated   in    Germantown    a    protest   against    Negro 

*  Turner :    The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  1. 
t  Ibid.,  21. 


12      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

slavery  that  was  "the  first  formal  action  ever  taken  against 
the  barter  in  human  flesh  within  the  boundaries  of  the  United 
States."  *  Here  a  small  company  of  Germans  was  assembled 
April  1 8,  1688,  and  there  was  drawn  up  a  document  signed 
by  Garret  Hendericks,  Franz  Daniel  Pastorius,  Dirck  Op  den 
Graeff,  and  Abraham  Op  den  Graeff.  The  protest  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  monthly  meeting  of  the  Quakers  about  to  take 
place  in  Lower  Dublin.  The  monthly  meeting  on  April  30  felt 
that  it  could  not  pretend  to  take  action  on  such  an  important 
matter  and  referred  it  to  the  quarterly  meeting  in  June.  This  in 
turn  passed  it  on  to  the  yearly  meeting,  the  highest  tribunal 
of  the  Quakers.  Here  it  was  laid  on  the  table,  and  for  the 
next  few  years  nothing  resulted  from  it.  About  1696,  how- 
ever, opposition  to  slavery  on  the  part  of  the  Quakers  began 
to  be  active.  In  the  colony  at  large  before  1700  the  lot  of  the 
Negro  was  regularly  one  of  servitude.  Laws  were  made  for 
servants,  white  or  black,  and  regulations  and  restrictions  were 
largely  identical.  In  1700,  however,  legislation  began  more 
definitely  to  fix  the  status  of  the  slave.  In  this  year  an  act 
of  the  legislature  forbade  the  selling  of  Negroes  out  of  the 
province  without  their  consent,  but  in  other  ways  it  denied 
the  personality  of  the  slave.  This  act  met  further  formal 
approval  in  1705,  when  special  courts  were  ordained  for  the 
trial  and  punishment  of  slaves,  and  when  importation  from 
Carolina  was  forbidden  on  the  ground  that  it  made  trouble 
with  the  Indians  nearer  home.  In  1700  a  maximum  duty  of 
20s.  was  placed  on  each  Negro  imported,  and  in  1705  this  was 
doubled,  there  being  already  some  competition  with  white  labor. 
In  1 71 2  the  Assembly  sought  to  prevent  importation  altogether 
by  a  duty  of  £20  a  head.  This  act  was  repealed  in  England, 
and  a  duty  of  £5  in  171 5  was  also  repealed.  In  1729,  however, 
the  duty  was  fixed  at  £2,  at  which  figure  it  remained  for  a 
generation. 

It  was  almost  by  accident  that  slavery  was  officially  recog- 
nized in  Connecticut  in  1650.  The  code  of  laws  compiled  for 
the  colony  in  this  year  was  especially  harsh  on  the  Indians. 
It  was  enacted  that  certain  of  them  who  incurred  the  displeas- 

*  Faust :    The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,  Boston,  1909,  I,  45. 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA        13 

ure  of  the  colony  might  be  made  to  serve  the  person  injured 
or  "be  shipped  out  and  exchanged  for  Negroes."  In  1680 
the  governor  of  the  colony  informed  the  Board  of  Trade  that 
"as  for  blacks  there  came  sometimes  three  or  four  in  a  year 
from  Barbadoes,  and  they  are  usually  sold  at  the  rate  of  £22 
apiece."  These  people  were  regarded  rather  as  servants  than 
as  slaves,  and  early  legislation  was  mainly  in  the  line  of  police 
regulations  designed  to  prevent  their  running  away. 

In  1652  it  was  enacted  in  Rhode  Island  that  all  slaves 
brought  into  the  colony  should  be  set  free  after  ten  years 
of  service.  This  law  was  not  designed,  as  might  be  supposed, 
to  restrict  slavery.  It  was  really  a  step  in  the  evolution  of  the 
system,  and  the  limit  of  ten  years  was  by  no  means  observed. 
"The  only  legal  recognition  of  the  law  was  in  the  series  of 
acts  beginning  January  4,  1703,  to  control  the  wandering 
of  African  slaves  and  servants,  and  another  beginning  in 
April,  1708,  in  which  the  slave-trade  was  indirectly  legalized 
by  being  taxed."  *  "In  course  of  time  Rhode  Island  became 
the  greatest  slave-trader  in  the  country,  becoming  a  sort  of  ' 
clearing-house  for  the  other  colonies."f 

New  Hampshire,  profiting  by  the  experience  of  the  neigh- 
boring colony  of  Massachusetts,  deemed  it  best  from  the  be- 
ginning to  discourage  slavery.  There  were  so  few  Negroes  % 
in  the  colony  as  to  form  a  quantity  practically  negligible.  The 
system  was  recognized,  however,  an  act  being  passed 
in  1 7 14  to  regulate  the  conduct  of  slaves,  and  another  four 
years  later  to  regulate  that  of  masters. 

In  North  Carolina,  even  more  than  in  most  of  the  colonies, 
the  system  of  Negro  slavery  was  long  controlled  by  custom 
rather  than  by  legal  enactment.  It  was  recognized  by  law  in 
1 71 5,  however,  and  police  regulations  to  govern  the  slaves 
were  enacted.  In  South  Carolina  the  history  of  slavery  is 
particularly  noteworthy.  The  natural  resources  of  this  colony 
offered  a  ready  home  for  the  system,  and  the  laws  here  for- 
mulated were  as  explicit  as  any  ever  enacted.  Slaves  were 
first  imported  from  Barbadoes,  and  their  status  received  official 

*  William  T.  Alexander:  History  of  the  Colored  Race  in  America, 
New  Orleans,  1887,  p.  136. 

t  DuBois :   Suppression  of  the  Slave-Trade,  34. 


14      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

confirmation  in  1682.  By  1720  the  number  had  increased  to 
12,000,  the  white  people  numbering  only  9,000.  By  1698  such 
was  the  fear  from  the  preponderance  of  the  Negro  popula- 
tion that  a  special  act  was  passed  to  encourage  white  immigra- 
tion. Legislation  "for  the  better  ordering  of  slaves"  was 
passed  in  1690,  and  in  17 12  the  first  regular  slave  law  was 
enacted.  Once  before  1713,  the  year  of  the  Assiento  Contract 
of  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  and  several  times  after  this  date, 
prohibitive  duties  were  placed  on  Negroes  to  guard  against 
their  too  rapid  increase.  By  1734,  however,  importation  had 
again  reached  large  proportions;  and  in  1740,  in  consequence 
of  recent  insurrectionary  efforts,  a  prohibitive  duty  several 
times  larger  than  the  previous  one  was  placed  upon  Negroes 
brought  into  the  province. 

The  colony  of  Georgia  was  chartered  in  1732  and  actually 
founded  the  next  year.  Oglethorpe's  idea  was  that  the  col- 
ony should  be  a  refuge  for  persecuted  Christians  and  the 
debtor  classes  of  England.  Slavery  was  forbidden  on  the 
ground  that  Georgia  was  to  defend  the  other  English  col- 
onies from  the  Spaniards  on  the  South,  and  that  it  would 
not  be  able  to  do  this  if  like  South  Carolina  it  dissipated  its 
energies  in  guarding  Negro  slaves.  For  years  the  develop- 
ment of  Georgia  was  slow,  and  the  prosperous  condition  of 
South  Carolina  constantly  suggested  to  the  planters  that  "the 
one  thing  needful"  for  their  highest  welfare  was  slavery.  Again 
and  again  were  petitions  addressed  to  the  trustees,  George 
Whitefield  being  among  those  who  most  urgently  advocated 
the  innovation.  Moreover,  Negroes  from  South  Carolina 
were  sometimes  hired  for  life,  and  purchases  were  openly 
made  in  Savannah.  It  was  not  until  1749,  however,  that  the 
trustees  yielded  to  the  request.  In  1755  the  legislature  passed 
an  act  that  regulated  the  conduct  of  the  slaves,  and  in 
1765  a  more  regular  code  was  adopted.  Thus  did  slavery 
finally  gain  a  foothold  in  what  was  destined  to  become  one 
of  the  most  important  of  the  Southern  states. 

For  the  first  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  the  life  of  the  colonies 
the  introduction  of  Negroes  was  slow;  the  system  of  white 
servitude  furnished  most  of  the  labor  needed,  and  England 
had  not  yet  won  supremacy  in  the  slave-trade.     It  was  in  the 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA        15 

last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  importations  be- 
gan to  be  large,  and  in  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  numbers  grew  by  leaps  and  bounds.  In  1625,  six  years 
after  the  first  Negroes  were  brought  to  the  colony,  there  were 
in  Virginia  only  23  Negroes,  12  male,  11  female.*  In  1659 
there  were  3a  >;  but  in  1683  there  were  3,000  and  in  1708, 
12,000.  In  1680  Governor  Simon  Bradstreet  reported  to 
England  with  reference  to  Massachusetts  that  "no  company 
of  blacks  or  slaves"  had  been  brought  into  the  province  since 
its  beginning,  for  the  space  of  fifty  years,  with  the  exception 
of  a  small  vessel  that  two  years  previously,  after  a  twenty 
months'  voyage  to  Madagascar,  had  brought  hither  between 
forty  and  fifty  Negroes,  mainly  women  and  children,  who 
were  sold  for  £10,  £15,  and  £20  apiece;  occasionally  two  or 
three  Negroes  were  brought  from  Barbadoes  or  other  islands, 
and  altogether  there  were  in  Massachusetts  at  the  time  not 
more  than  100  or  120. 

The  colonists  were  at  first  largely  opposed  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  slavery,  and  numerous  acts  were  passed  prohibiting  it 
in  Virginia,  Massachusetts,  and  elsewhere;  and  in  Georgia, 
as  we  have  seen,  it  had  at  first  been  expressly  forbidden. 
English  business  men,  however,  had  no  scruples  about  the 
matter.  About  1663  a  British  Committee  on  Foreign  Plan- 
tations declared  that  ' 'black  slaves  are  the  most  useful  appur- 
tenances of  a  plantation,"  f  and  twenty  years  later  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  Trade  stated  that  "the  colonists  could  not 
possibly  subsist"  without  an  adequate  supply  of  slaves.  Laws 
passed  in  the  colonies  were  regularly  disallowed  by  the  crown, 
and  royal  governors  were  warned  that  the  colonists  would  not 
be  permitted  to  "discourage  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  na-  ) 
tion."  Before  1772  Virginia  passed  not  less  than  thirty-three 
acts  looking  toward  the  prohibition  of  the  importation  of 
slaves,  but  in  every  instance  the  act  was  annulled  by  England. 
In  the  far  South,  especially  in  South  Carolina,  we  have  seen 
that  there  were  increasingly  heavy  duties.  In  spite  of  all  such 
efforts  for  restriction,  however,  the  system  of  Negro  slavery, 
once  well  started,  developed  apace. 

*  Virginia  Magazine  of  History,  VII,  364. 
t  Bogart :   Economic  History,  73. 


16      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

In  two  colonies  not  among  the  original  thirteen  but  impor- 
tant in  the  later  history  of  the  United  States,  Negroes  were 
present  at  a  very  early  date,  in  the  Spanish  colony  of  Florida 
from  the  very  first,  and  in  the  French  colony  of  Louisiana  as 
soon  as  New  Orleans  really  began  to  grow.     Negroes  accom- 
panied the  Spaniards  in  their  voyages  along  the  South  Atlantic 
coast   early   in   the   sixteenth   century,   and   specially   trained 
Spanish  slaves  assisted  in  the  founding  of  St.  Augustine  in 
1565.     The  ambitious  schemes  in  France  of  the  great  adven- 
turer, John  Law,  and  especially  the  design  of  the  Mississippi 
Company    (chartered    171 7)    included  an  agreement   for   the 
importation  into  Louisiana  of  six  thousand  white  persons  and 
three  thousand  Negroes,  the  Company  having  secured  among 
other  privileges  the  exclusive  right  to  trade  with  the  colony 
for  twenty-five  years  and  the  absolute  ownership  of  all  mines 
in  it.     The  sufferings  of  some  of  the  white  emigrants  from 
France — the  kidnapping,  the  revenge,  and  the  chicanery  that 
played  so  large  a  part — all  make  a  story  complete  in  itself. 
As  for  the  Negroes,  it  was  definitely  stipulated  that  these 
should  not  come   from   another   French  colony  without  the 
consent  of  the  governor  of  that  colony.     The  contract  had 
only  begun  to  be  carried  out  when  Law's  bubble  burst.     How- 
ever, in  June,   1721,  there  were  600  Negroes  in  Louisiana; 
in  1745  the  number  had  increased  to  2020.     The  stories  con- 
nected with  these  people  are  as  tragic  and  wildly  romantic 
as  are  most  of  the  stories  in  the  history  of  Louisiana.     In 
fact,  this  colony  from  the  very  first  owed  not  a  little  of  its 
abandon  and  its  fascination  to  the  mysticism  that  the  Negroes 
themselves  brought  from  Africa.     In  the  midst  of  much  that 
is  apocryphal  one  or  two  events  or  episodes  stand  out  with 
distinctness.     In  1729,  Perier,  governor  at  the  time,  testified 
with  reference  to  a  small  company  of  Negroes  who  had  been 
sent   against   the   Indians   as    follows:    "Fifteen   Negroes   in 
whose  hands   we  had  put  weapons,  performed  prodigies  of 
valor.     If  the  blacks  did  not  cost  so  much,  and  if  their  labors 
were  not  so  necessary  to  the  colony,  it  would  be  better  to 
turn  them  into  soldiers,  and  to  dismiss  those  we  have,  who 
are  so  bad  and  so  cowardly  that  they  seem  to  have  been  manu- 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA        17 

factured  purposely  for  this  colony."  *  Not  always,  however, 
did  the  Negroes  fight  against  the  Indians.  In  1730  some  rep- 
resentatives of  the  powerful  Banbaras  had  an  understanding 
with  the  Chickasaws  by  which  the  latter  were  to  help  them 
in  exterminating  all  the  white  people  and  in  setting  up  an  in- 
dependent republic.!  They  were  led  by  a  strong  and  desperate 
Negro  named  Samba.  As  a  result  of  this  effort  for  freedom 
Samba  and  seven  of  his  companions  were  broken  on  the  wheel 
and  a  woman  was  hanged.  Already,  however,  there  had  been 
given  the  suggestion  of  the  possible  alliance  in  the  future  of 
the  Indian  and  the  Negro.  From  the  very  first  also,  because 
of  the  freedom  from  restraint  of  all  the  elements  of  population 
that  entered  into  the  life  of  the  colony,  there  was  the  beginning 
of  that  mixture  of  the  races  which  was  later  to  tell  so  vitally 
on  the  social  life  of  Louisiana  and  whose  effects  are  so  readily 
apparent  even  to-day. 

5.     The  Wake  of  the  Slave-Ship 

Thus  it  was  that  Negroes  came  to  America.  Thus  it  was 
also,  we  might  say,  that  the  Negro  Problem  came,  though  it 
was  not  for  decades,  not  until  the  budding  years  of  American 
nationality,  that  the  ultimate  reaches  of  the  problem  were 
realized.  Those  who  came  were  by  no  means  all  of  exactly 
the  same  race  stock  and  language.  Plantations  frequently 
exhibited  a  variety  of  customs,  and  sometimes  traditional 
enemies  became  brothers  in  servitude.  The  center  of  the  co- 
lonial slave-trade  was  the  African  coast  for  about  two  hun- 
dred miles  east  of  the  great  Niger  River.  From  this  com- 
paratively small  region  came  as  many  slaves  as  from  all  the 
rest  of  Africa  together.  A  number  of  those  who  came  were 
of  entirely  different  race  stock  from  the  Negroes;  some  were 
Moors,  and  a  very  few  were  Malays  from  Madagascar. 

The  actual  procuring  of  the  slaves  was  by  no  means  as  easy 
a  process  as  is  sometimes  supposed.  In  general  the  slave 
mart  brought  out  the  most  vicious  passions  of  all  who  were  in 
any  way  connected  with  the  traffic.     The  captain  of  a  vessel 

*  Gayarre :   History  of  Louisiana,  I,  435. 
t  Ibid.,  I,  440. 


18       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

had  to  resort  to  various  expedients  to  get  his  cargo.  His 
commonest  method  was  to  bring  with  him  a  variety  of  gay 
cloth,  cheap  ornaments,  and  whiskey,  which  he  would  give  in 
exchange  for  slaves  brought  to  him.  His  task  was  most  sim- 
ple when  a  chieftain  of  one  tribe  brought  to  him  several  hun- 
dred prisoners  of  war.  Ordinarily,  however,  the  work  was 
more  toilsome,  and  kidnapping  a  favorite  method,  though 
individuals  were  sometimes  enticed  on  vessels.  The  work  was 
always  dangerous,  for  the  natives  along  the  slave-coast  soon 
became  suspicious.  After  they  had  seen  some  of  their  tribes- 
men taken  away,  they  learned  not  to  go  unarmed  while  a  slave- 
vessel  was  on  the  coast,  and  very  often  there  were  hand-to- 
hand  encounters.  It  was  not  long  before  it  began  to  be  im- 
pressed upon  those  interested  in  the  trade  that  it  was  not  good 
business  to  place  upon  the  captain  of  a  vessel  the  responsibility 
of  getting  together  three  or  four  hundred  slaves,  and  that  it 
would  be  better  if  he  could  find  his  cargo  waiting  for  him  when 
he  came.  Thus  arose  the  so-called  factories,  which  were 
nothing  more  than  warehouses.  Along  the  coast  were  placed 
small  settlements  of  Europeans,  whose  business  it  was  to 
stimulate  slave-hunting  expeditions,  negotiate  for  slaves 
brought  in,  and  see  that  they  were  kept  until  the  arrival  of 
the  ships.  Practically  every  nation  engaged  in  the  traffic 
planted  factories  of  this  kind  along  the  West  Coast  from 
Cape  Verde  to  the  equator;  and  thus  it  was  that  this  part  of 
Africa  began  to  be  the  most  flagrantly  exploited  region  in  the 
world;  thus  whiskey  and  all  the  other  vices  of  civilization  be- 
gan to  come  to  a  simple  and  home-loving  people. 

Once  on  board  the  slaves  were  put  in  chains  two  by  two. 
When  the  ship  was  ready  to  start,  the  hold  of  the  vessel  was 
crowded  with  moody  and  unhappy  wretches  who  most  often 
were  made  to  crouch  so  that  their  knees  touched  their  chins, 
but  who  also  were  frequently  made  to  lie  on  their  sides  "spoon- 
fashion."  Sometimes  the  space  between  floor  and  ceiling  was 
still  further  diminished  by  the  water-barrels ;  on  the  top  of 
these  barrels  boards  were  placed,  on  the  boards  the  slaves  had 
to  lie,  and  in  the  little  space  that  remained  they  had  to  subsist 
as  well  as  they  could.  There  was  generally  only  one  entrance 
to  the  hold,  and  provision  for  only  the  smallest  amount  of 


THE  COMING  OF  NEGROES  TO  AMERICA        19 

air  through  the  gratings  on  the  sides.  The  clothing  of  a  cap- 
tive, if  there  was  any  at  all,  consisted  of  only  a  rag  about  the 
loins.  The  food  was  half-rotten  rice,  yams,  beans,  or  soup, 
and  sometimes  bread  and  meat;  the  cooking  was  not  good, 
nor  was  any  care  taken  to  see  that  all  were  fed.  Water  was 
always  limited,  a  pint  a  day  being  a  generous  allowance;  fre- 
quently no  more  than  a  gill  could  be  had.  The  rule  was  to 
bring  the  slaves  from  the  hold  twice  a  day  for  an  airing,  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  four  in  the  afternoon;  but 
this  plan  was  not  always  followed.  On  deck  they  were  made 
to  dance  by  the  lash,  and  they  were  also  forced  to  sing.  Thus 
were  born  the  sorrow-songs,  the  last  cry  of  those  who  saw 
their  homeland  vanish  behind  them — forever.  * 

Sometimes  there  were  stern  rights  on  board.  Sometimes 
food  was  refused  in  order  that  death  might  be  hastened.  'When 
opportunity  served,  some  leaped  overboard  in  the  hope  of  be- 
ing taken  back  to  Africa.  Throughout  the  night  the  hold 
resounded  with  the  moans  of  those  who  awoke  from  dreams 
of  home  to  find  themselves  in  bonds.  Women  became  hys- 
terical, and  both  men  and  women  became  insane.  Fearful 
and  contagious  diseases  broke  out.  Smallpox  was  one  of 
these.  More  common  was  ophthalmia,  a  frightful  inflammation 
of  the  eyes.  A  blind,  and  hence  a  worthless,  slave  was  thrown 
to  the  sharks.  The  putrid  atmosphere,  the  melancholy,  and 
the  sudden  transition  from  heat  to  cold  greatly  increased  the 
mortality,  and  frequently  when  morning  came  a  dead  and  a 
living  slave  were  found  shackled  together.  A  captain  always 
counted  on  losing  one-fourth  of  his  cargo.  Sometimes  he  lost 
a  great  deal  more. 

Back  on  the  shore  a  gray  figure  with  strained  gaze  watched 
the  ship  fade  away — an  old  woman  sadly  typical  of  the  great 
African  mother.  With  her  vision  she  better  than  any  one  else 
perceived  the  meaning  of  it  all.  The  men  with  hard  faces  who 
came  to  buy  and  sell  might  deceive  others,  but  not  her.  In 
a  great  vague  way  she  felt  that  something  wrong  had  attacked 
the  very  heart  of  her  people.  She  saw  men  wild  with  the 
whiskey  of  the  Christian  nations  commit  crimes  undreamed  of 
before.  She  did  not  like  the  coast  towns;  the  girl  who  went 
thither  came  not  home  again,  and  a  young  man  was  lost  to 


20      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

all  that  Africa  held  dear.  In  course  of  time  she  saw  every 
native  craft  despised,  and  instead  of  the  fabric  that  her  own 
fingers  wove  her  children  yearned  for  the  tinsel  and  the  gew- 
gaws of  the  trader.  She  cursed  this  man,  and  she  called  upon 
all  her  spirits  to  banish  the  evil.  But  when  at  last  all  was 
of  no  avail — when  the  strongest  youth  or  the  dearest  maiden 
had  gone — she  went  back  to  her  hut  and  ate  her  heart  out 
in  the  darkness.  She  wept  for  her  children  and  would  not  be 
comforted  because  they  were  not.  Then  slowly  to  the  un- 
tutored mind  somehow  came  the  promise:  "These  are  they 
which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their 
robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  .  . 
They  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more;  neither 
shall  the  sun  light  on  them,  nor  any  heat.  For  the  Lamb 
which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed  them,  and  shall 
lead  them  unto  living  fountains  of  waters ;  and  God  shall  wipe 
away  all  tears  from  their  eyes." 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES 


The  Negroes  who  were  brought  from  Africa  to  America 
were  brought  hither  to  work,  and  to  work  under  compulsion; 
hence  any  study  of  their  social  life  in  the  colonial  era  must 
be  primarily  a  study  of  their  life  under  the  system  of  slavery, 
and  of  the  efforts  of  individuals  to  break  away  from  the  same. 

i.     Servitude  and  Slavery 

For  the  antecedents  of  Negro  slavery  in  America  one  must 
go  back  to  the  system  of  indentured  labor  known  as  servitude. 
This  has  been  defined  as  "a  legalized  status  of  Indian,  white, 
and  Negro  servants  preceding  slavery  in  most,  if  not  all,  of 
the  English  mainland  colonies."  *  A  study  of  servitude  will 
explain  many  of  the  acts  with  reference  to  Negroes,  especially 
those  about  intermarriage  with  white  people.  For  the  origins 
of  the  system  one  must  go  back  to  social  conditions  in  Eng- 
land in  the  seventeenth  century.  While  villeinage  had  been 
formally  abolished  in  England  at  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  it  still  lingered  in  remote  places,  and  even  if  men  were 
not  technically  villeins  they  might  be  subjected  to  long  periods 
of  service.  By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  de- 
mand for  wool  had  led  to  the  enclosure  of  many  farms  for 
sheep-raising,  and  accordingly  to  distress  on  the  part  of  many 
agricultural  laborers.  Conditions  were  not  improved  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  they  were  in  fact  made  more 
acute,  the  abolition  of  the  monasteries  doing  away  with  many 
of  the  sources  of  relief.  Men  out  of  work  were  thrown  upon 
the  highways  and  thus  became  a  menace  to  society.  In  1564 
the  price  of  wheat  was  19s.  a  quarter  and  wages  were  yd.  a 

*  New  International  Encyclopedia,  Article  "Slavery." 

21 


22      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

day.  The  situation  steadily  grew  worse,  and  in  1610,  while 
wages  were  still  the  same,  wheat  was  35s.  a  quarter.  Rents 
were  constantly  rising,  moreover,  and  many  persons  died  from 
starvation.  '  In  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century  paupers 
and  dissolute  persons  more  and  more  filled  the  jails  and  work- 
houses. 

Meanwhile  in  the  young  colonies  across  the  sea  labor  was 
scarce,  and  it  seemed  to  many  an  act  of  benevolence  to  bring 
from  England  persons  who  could  not  possibly  make  a  living 
at  home  and  give  them  some  chance  in  the  New  World.  From 
the  very  first,  children,  and  especially  young  people  between 
the  ages  of  twelve  and  twenty,  were  the  most  desired.  The 
London  Company  undertook  to  meet  half  of  the  cost  of  the 
transportation  and  maintenance  of  children  sent  out  by  parish 
authorities,  the  understanding  being  that  it  would  have  the 
service  of  the  same  until  they  were  of  age.*  The  Company 
was  to  teach  each  boy  a  trade  and  when  his  freedom  year 
arrived  was  to  give  to  each  one  fifty  acres,  a  cow,  some  seed 
corn,  tools,  and  firearms.  He  then  became  the  Company's 
tenant,  for  seven  years  more  giving  to  it  one-half  of  his 
produce,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  came  into  full  possession 
of  twenty-five  acres.  After  the  Company  collapsed  indi- 
viduals took  up  the  idea.  Children  under  twelve  years  of 
age  might  be  bound  for  seven  years,  and  persons  over  twenty- 
one  for  no  more  than  four;  but  the  common  term  was  five 
years. 

Under  this  system  fell  servants  voluntary  and  involuntary. 
Hundreds  of  people,  too  poor  to  pay  for  their  transportation, 
sold  themselves  for  a  number  of  years  to  pay  for  the  transfer. 
Some  who  were  known  as  "freewillers"  had  some  days  in 
which  to  dispose  of  themselves  to  the  best  advantage  in 
America;  if  they  could  not  make  satisfactory  terms,  they  too 
were  sold  to  pay  for  the  passage.  More  important  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  system  itself,  however,  was  the  number 
of  involuntary  servants  brought  hither.  Political  offenders, 
vagrants,  and  other  criminals  were  thus  sent  to  the  colonies, 
and  many  persons,  especially  boys  and  girls,  were  kidnapped 
in  the  streets  of  London  and  ''spirited"  away.     Thus  came 

*  Coman :  Industrial  History,  42. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  23 

Irishmen  or  Scotchmen  who  had  incurred  the  ire  of  the  crown, ) 
Cavaliers  or  Roundheads  according  as  one  party  or  the  other! 
was  out  of  power,  and  farmers  who  had  engaged  in  Mon-  \ 
mouth's  rebellion;  and  in  the  year   1680  alone  it  was  esti- 
mated that  not  less  than  ten  thousand  persons  were  "spirited" 
away  from  England.     It  is  easy  to  see  how  such  a  system  be- 
came a  highly  profitable  one   for  shipmasters  and  those  in 
connivance  with  them.     Virginia  objected  to  the  criminals, 
and  in  1671  the  House  of  Burgesses  passed  a  law  against 
the  importing  of  such  persons,  and  the  same  was  approved 
by   the   governor.      Seven   years   later,   however,    it   was   set 
aside  for  the  transportation  of  political  offenders. 

As  having  the  status  of  an  apprentice  the  servant  could  sue 
in  court  and  he  was  regularly  allowed  "freedom  dues"  at  the 
expiration  of  his  term.     He  could  not  vote,  however,  could  \ 
not  bear  weapons,  and  of  course  could  not  hold  office.     In  I 
some    cases,    especially    where    the    system    was    voluntary,  1 
servants  sustained  kindly  relations  with  their  masters,  a  few  / 
even  becoming  secretaries,  or  tutors.     More  commonly,  how- 
ever, the  lot  of  the  indentured  laborer  was  a  hard  one,  his 
food  often  being  only  coarse  Indian  meal,  and  water  mixed 
with  molasses.     The  moral  effect  of  the  system  was  bad  in 
the  fate  to  which  it  subjected  woman  and  in  the  evils  resulting 
from  the  sale  of  the  labor  of  children.     In  this  whole  con- 
nection, however,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  standards 
of  the  day  were  very  different  from  those  of  our  own.     The 
modern  humanitarian  impulse  had  not  yet  moved  the  heart 
of  England,  and  flogging  was  still  common  for  soldiers  and 
sailors,  criminals  and  children  alike. 

The  first  Negroes  brought  to  the  colonies  were  technically 
servants,  and  generally  as  Negro  slavery  advanced  white  servi- 
tude declined.  James  II,  in  fact,  did  whatever  he  could  to 
hasten  the  end  of  servitude  in  order  that  slavery  might  become 
more  profitable.  Economic  forces  were  with  him,  for  while 
a  slave  varied  in  price  from  £10  to  £50,  the  mere  cost  of 
transporting  a  servant  was  from  £6  to  £10.  "Servitude  became 
slavery  when  to  such  incidents  as  alienation,  disfranchise- 
ment, whipping,  and  limited  marriage  were  added  those  of 
perpetual  service  and  a  denial  of  civil,  juridical,  marital  and 


24      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

property  rights  as  well  as  the  denial  of  the  possession  of  chil- 
dren." *  Even  after  slavery  was  well  established,  however, 
white  men  and  women  were  frequently  retained  as  domestic 
servants,  and  the  system  of  servitude  did  not  finally  pass  in  all 
of  its  phases  before  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Negro  slavery  was  thus  distinctively  an  evolution.  As  the 
first  Negroes  were  taken  by  pirates,  the  rights  of  ownership 
could  not  legally  be  given  to  those  who  purchased  them; 
hence  slavery  by  custom  preceded  slavery  by  statute.  Little 
by  little  the  colonies  drifted  into  the  sterner  system.  The 
transition  was  marked  by  such  an  act  as  that  in  Rhode 
Island,  which  in  1652  permitted  a  Negro  to  be  bound  for 
ten  years.  We  have  already  referred  to  the  Act  of  Assembly 
in  Virginia  in  1661  to  the  effect  that  Negroes  were  incapable 
of  making  satisfaction  for  time  lost  in  running  away  by 
addition  of  time.  Even  before  it  had  become  generally  enacted 
or  understood  in  the  colonies,  however,  that  a  child  born  of 
slave  parents  should  serve  for  life,  a  new  question  had  arisen, 
that  of  the  issue  of  a  free  person  and  a  slave.  This  led  Vir- 
ginia in  1662  to  lead  the  way  with  an  act  declaring  that  the 
status  of  a  child  should  be  determined  by  that  of  the  mother, f 
which  act  both  gave  to  slavery  the  sanction  of  law  and  made 
it  hereditary.  From  this  time  forth  Virginia  took  a  com- 
manding lead  in  legislation;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
when  we  refer  to  this  province  we  by  no  means  have  refer- 
ence to  the  comparatively  small  state  of  to-day,  but  to  the 
richest  and  most  populous  of  the  colonies.  This  position 
Virginia  maintained  until  after  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
not  only  the  present  West  Virginia  but  the  great  Northwest 
Territory  were  included  in  her  domain. 

The  slave  had  none  of  the  ordinary  rights  of  citizenship; 
in  a  criminal  case  he  could  be  arrested,  tried,  and  condemned 
with  but  one  witness  against  him,  and  he  could  be  sentenced 
without  a  jury.  In  Virginia  in  1630  one  Hugh  Davis  was 
ordered  to  be  "soundly  whipped  before  an  assembly  of  Negroes 
and  others,  for  abusing  himself  to  the  dishonor  of  God  and 
the  shame  of  Christians,  by  defiling  his  body  in  lying  with 

*  New  International  Encyclopedia,  Article  "Slavery." 
t  Herring :     Statutes,  II,  170. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  25 

a  Negro."  *  Just  ten  years  afterwards,  in  1640,  one  Robert 
Sweet  was  ordered  "to  do  penance  in  church,  according  to  the 
laws  of  England,  for  getting  a  Negro  woman  with  child,  and 
the  woman  to  be  whipped."  f  Thus  from  the  very  beginning 
the  intermixture  of  the  races  was  frowned  upon  and  went  on 
all  the  same.  By  the  time,  moreover,  that  the  important  acts 
of  1 66 1  and  1662  had  formally  sanctioned  slavery,  doubt 
had  arisen  in  the  minds  of  some  Virginians  as  to  whether 
one  Christian  could  legitimately  hold  another  in  bondage; 
and  in  1667  ft  was  definitely  stated  that  the  conferring  of 
baptism  did  not  alter  the  condition  of  a  person  as  to  his 
bondage  or  freedom,  so  that  masters,  freed  from  this  doubt, 
could  now  "more  carefully  endeavor  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity." In  1669  an  "act  about  the  casual  killing  of  slaves" 
provided  that  if  any  slave  resisted  his  master  and  under  the 
extremity  of  punishment  chanced  to  die,  his  death  was  not 
to  be  considered  a  felony  and  the  master  was  to  be  acquitted. 
In  1670  it  was  made  clear  that  none  but  freeholders  and  house- 
keepers should  vote  in  the  election  of  burgesses,  and  in  the 
same  year  provision  was  taken  against  the  possible  ownership 
of  a  white  servant  by  a  free  Negro,  who  nevertheless  "was 
not  debarred  from  buying  any  of  his  own  nation."  In  1692 
there  was  legislation  "for  the  more  speedy  prosecution  of 
slaves  committing  capital  crimes" ;  and  this  was  reenacted  in 
17°5y  when  some  provision  was  made  for  the  compensation 
of  owners  and  when  it  was  further  declared  that  Negro,  mu- 
latto, and  Indian  slaves  within  the  dominion  were  "real 
estate"  and  "incapable  in  law  to  be  witnesses  in  any  cases 
whatsoever";  and  in  1723  there  was  an  elaborate  and  detailed 
act  "directing  the  trial  of  slaves  committing  capital  crimes, 
and  for  the  more  effectual  punishing  conspiracies  and  insur- 
rections of  them,  and  for  the  better  government  of  Negroes, 
mulattoes,  and  Indians,  bond  or  free."  This  last  act  specifi- 
cally stated  that  no  slave  should  be  set  free  upon  any  pre- 
tense whatsoever  "except  for  some  meritorious  services,  to  be 
adjudged  and  allowed  by  the  governor  and  council."  All  this 
legislation  was  soon  found  to  be  too  drastic  and  too  difficult 

*  Hening :   Statutes,  I,  146. 
t /«<*.,  I,  5S2. 


26      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

to  enforce,  and  modification  was  inevitable.  This  came  in 
1732,  when  it  was  made  possible  for  a  slave  to  be  a  witness 
when  another  slave  was  on  trial  for  a  capital  offense,  and 
in  1744  this  provision  was  extended  to  civil  cases  as  well. 
In  1748  there  was  a  general  revision  of  all  existing  legisla- 
tion, with  special  provision  against  attempted  insurrections. 
Thus  did  Virginia  pave  the  way,  and  more  and  more  slave 
codes  took  on  some  degree  of  definiteness  and  uniformity. 
Very  important  was  the  act  of  1705,  which  provided  that 
a  slave  might  be  inventoried  as  real  estate.  As  property 
henceforth  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  his  being  separated 
from  his  family.  Before  the  law  he  was  no  longer  a  person 
but  a  thing. 

2.     The  Indian,  the  Mulatto,  and  the  Free  Negro 

All  along,  it  is  to  be  observed,  the  problem  of  the  Negro 
was  complicated  by  that  of  the  Indian.  At  first  there  was 
,a  feeling  that  Indians  were  to  be  treated  not  as  Negroes  but 
as  on  the  same  basis  as  Englishmen.  An  act  in  Virginia  of 
1 661 -2  summed  up  this  feeling  in  the  provision  that  they 
were  not  to  be  sold  as  servants  for  any  longer  time  than 
English  people  of  the  same  age,  and  injuries  done  to  them 
were  to  be  duly  remedied  by  the  laws  of  England.  About 
the  same  time  a  Powhatan  Indian  sold  for  life  was  ordered 
to  be  set  free.  An  interesting  enactment  of  1670  attempted 
to  give  the 'Indian  an  intermediate  status  between  that  of 
the  Englishman  and  the  Negro  slave,  as  "servants  not  being 
Christians,  imported  into  the  colony  by  shipping"  (i.e., 
Negroes)  were  to  be  slaves  for  their  lives,  but  those  that 
came  by  land  were  to  serve  "if  boys  or  girls  until  thirty  years 
of  age;  if  men  or  women,  twelve  years  and  no  longer."  All 
such  legislation,  however,  was  radically  changed  as  a  result 
of  Nathaniel  Bacon's  rebellion  of  1676,  in  which  the  aid  of 
the  natives  was  invoked  against  the  English  governor.  Hence- 
forth Indians  taken  in  war  became  the  slaves  for  life  of  their 
captors.  An  elaborate  act  of  1682  summed  up  the  new  status, 
and  Indians  sold  by  other  Indians  were  to  be  "adjudged, 
deemed,  and  taken  to  be  slaves,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  27 

any  law,  usage,  or  custom  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding." 
Indian  women  were  to  be  "tithables,"  *  and  they  were  required 
to  pay  levies  just  as  Negro  women.  From  this  time  forth 
enactments  generally  included  Indians  along  with  Negroes, 
but  of  course  the  laws  placed  on  the  statute  books  did  not 
always  bear  close  relation  to  what  was  actually  enforced,  and 
in  general  the  Indian  was  destined  to  be  a  vanishing  rather 
than  a  growing  problem.  Very  early  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
in  connection  with  the  wars  between  the  English  and  the 
Spanish  in  Florida,  hundreds  of  Indians  were  shipped  to 
the  West  Indies  and  some  to  New  England.  Massachusetts 
in  1712  prohibited  such  importation,  as  the  Indians  were 
"malicious,  surly,  and  very  ungovernable,"  and  she  was  fol- 
lowed to  similar  effect  by  Pennsylvania  in  17 12,  by  New 
Hampshire  in  17 14,  and  by  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
in  1715. 

If  the  Indian  was  destined  to  be  a  vanishing  factor,  the 
mulatto  and  the  free  Negro  most  certainly  were  not.  In  spite 
of  all  the  laws  to  prevent  it,  the  intermixture  of  the  races 
increased,  and  manumission  somehow  also  increased.  Some- 
times a  master  in  his  will  provided  that  several  of  his  slaves 
should  be  given  their  freedom.  Occasionally  a  slave  became 
free  by  reason  of  what  was  regarded  as  an  act  of  service 
to  the  commonwealth,  as  in  the  case  of  one  Will,  slave  belong- 
ing to  Robert  Ruffin,  of  the  county  of  Surry  in  Virginia, 
who  in  1 7 10  divulged  a  conspiracy.!  There  is,  moreover, 
on  record  a  case  of  an  indentured  Negro  servant,  John  Gea- 
ween,  who  by  his  unusual  thrift  in  the  matter  of  some  hogs 
which  he  raised  on  the  share  system  with  his  master,  was 
able  as  early  as  1641  to  purchase  his  own  son  from  another 
master,  to  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  all  concerned.  J    Of  special 

*Hurd,  commenting  on  an  act  of  1649  declaring  all  imported  male 
servants  to  be  tithables,  speaks  as  follows  (230)  :  "Tithables  were  per- 
sons assessed  for  a  poll-tax,  otherwise  called  the  'county  levies/  At 
first,  only  free  white  persons  were  tithable.  The  law  of  1645  provided 
for  a  tax  on  property  and  tithable  persons.  By  1648  property  was 
released  and  taxes  levied  only  on  the  tithables,  at  a  specified  poll-tax. 
Therefore  by  classing  servants  or  slaves  as  tithables,  the  law  attributes 
to  them  legal  personality,  or  a  membership  in  the  social  state  incon- 
sistent with  the  condition  of  a  chattel  or  property." 

t  Hening :    Statutes,  III,  537. 

%  Virginia  Magazine  of  History,  X,  281. 


28      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

importance  for  some  years  were  those  persons  who  were 
descendants  of  Negro  fathers  and  indentured  white  mothers, 
and  who  at  first  were  of  course  legally  free.  By  1691  the 
problem  had  become  acute  in  Virginia.  In  this  year  "for  pre- 
vention of  that  abominable  mixture  and  spurious  issue,  which 
hereafter  may  increase  in  this  dominion,  as  well  by  Negroes, 
mulattoes  and  Indians  intermarrying  with  English  or  other 
white  women,  as  by  their  unlawful  accompanying  with  one 
another,"  it  was  enacted  that  "for  the  time  to  come  whatso- 
ever English  or  other  white  man  or  woman  being  free  shall 
intermarry  with  a  Negro,  mulatto,  or  Indian  man  or  woman, 
bond  or  free,  shall  within  three  months  after  such  marriage 
be  banished  and  removed  from  this  dominion  forever,  and 
that  the  justices  of  each  respective  county  within  this  dominion 
make  it  their  particular  care  that  this  act  be  put  in  effectual 
execution."  *  A  white  woman  who  became  the  mother  of 
a  child  by  a  Negro  or  mulatto  was  to  be  fined  £15  sterling, 
in  default  of  payment  was  to  be  sold  for  five  years,  while 
the  child  was  to  be  bound  in  servitude  to  the  church  wardens 
until  thirty  years  of  age.  It  was  further  provided  that  if 
any  Negro  or  mulatto  was  set  free,  he  was  to  be  transported 
from  the  country  within  six  months  of  his  manumission  (which 
enactment  is  typical  of  those  that  it  was  difficult  to  enforce 
and  that  after  a  while  were  only  irregularly  observed).  In 
1705  it  was  enacted  that  no  "Negro,  mulatto,  or  Indian  shall 
from  and  after  the  publication  of  this  act  bear  any  office 
ecclesiastical,  civil  or  military,  or  be  in  any  place  of  public 
trust  or  power,  within  this  her  majesty's  colony  and  dominion 
of  Virginia" ;  and  to  clear  any  doubt  that  might  arise  as  to 
who  should  be  accounted  a  mulatto,  it  was  provided  that 
"the  child  of  an  Indian,  and  the  child,  grandchild,  or  great- 
grandchild of  a  Negro  shall  be  deemed,  accounted,  held,  and 
taken  to  be  a  mulatto."  It  will  be  observed  that  while  the 
act  of  1670  said  that  "none  but  freeholders  and  housekeepers" 
could  vote,  this  act  of  1705  did  not  specifically  legislate  against 
voting  by  a  mulatto  or  a  free  Negro,  and  that  some  such  privi- 

*The  penalty  was  so  ineffective  that  in   1705  it  was  changed  simply 
to  imprisonment  for  six  months  "without  bail  or  mainprise." 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  29 

lege  was  exercised  for  a  while  appears  from  the  definite 
provision  in  1723  that  "no  free  Negro,  mulatto,  or  Indian, 
whatsoever,  shall  hereafter  have  any  vote  at  the  election  of 
burgesses,  or  any  other  election  whatsoever."  In  the  same 
year  it  was  provided  that  free  Negroes  and  mulattoes  might 
be  employed  as  drummers  or  trumpeters  in  servile  labor,  but 
that  they  were  not  to  bear  arms;  and  all  free  Negroes  above 
sixteen  years  of  age  were  declared  tithable.  In  1769,  how- 
ever, all  free  Negro  and  mulatto  women  were  exempted  from 
levies  as  tithables,  such  levies  having  proved  to  be  burden- 
some and  "derogatory  to  the  rights  of  freeborn  subjects." 

More  than  other  colonies  Maryland  seems  to  have  been 
troubled  about  the  intermixture  of  the  races ;  certainly  no  other 
phase  of  slavery  here  received  so  much  attention.  This  was 
due  to  the  unusual  emphasis  on  white  servitude  in  the  colony. 
In  1663  it  was  enacted  that  any  freeborn  woman  intermarry- 
ing with  a  slave  should  serve  the  master  of  the  slave  during 
the  life  of  her  husband  and  that  any  children  resulting  from 
the  union  were  also  to  be  slaves.  This  act  was  evidently 
intended  to  frighten  the  identured  woman  from  such  a  mar- 
riage. It  had  a  very  different  effect.  Many  masters,  in  order  I 
to  prolong  the  indenture  of  their  white  female  servants,  encour- 1 
aged  them  to  marry  Negro  slaves.  Accordingly  a  new  law 
in  1 68 1  threw  the  responsibility  not  on  the  indentured  woman 
but  on  the  master  or  mistress;  in  case  a  marriage  took  place 
between  a  white  woman-servant  and  a  slave,  the  woman  was 
to  be  free  at  once,  any  possible  issue  was  to  be  free,  and 
the  minister  performing  the  ceremony  and  the  master  or  mis- 
tress were  to  be  fined  ten  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco.  This 
did  not  finally  dispose  of  the  problem,  however,  and  in  171 5, 
in  response  to  a  slightly  different  situation,  it  was  enacted 
that  a  white  woman  who  became  the  mother  of  a  child  by 
a  free  Negro  father  should  become  a  servant  for  seven  years, 
the  father  also  a  servant  for  seven  years,  and  the  child  a 
servant  until  thirty-one  years  of  age.  Any  white  man  who 
begot  a  Negro  woman  with  child,  whether  a  free  woman 
or  a  slave,  was  to  undergo  the  same  penalty  as  a  white 
woman — a  provision  that  in  course  of  time  was  notoriously 


30      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

disregarded.  In  171 7  the  problem  was  still  unsettled,  and  in 
this  year  it  was  enacted  that  Negroes  or  mulattoes  of  either 
sex  intermarrying  with  white  people  were  to  be  slaves  for  life, 
except  mulattoes  born  of  white  women,  who  were  to  serve 
for  seven  years,  and  the  white  person  so  intermarrying  also 
for  seven  years.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  with  all  these 
changing  and  contradictory  provisions  many  servants  and 
Negroes  did  not  even  know  what  the  law  was.  In  1728,  how- 
ever, free  mulatto  women  having  illegitimate  children  by 
Negroes  and  other  slaves,  and  free  Negro  women  having 
illegitimate  children  by  white  men,  and  their  issue,  were  sub- 
jected to  the  same  penalties  as  in  the  former  act  were  provided 
against  white  women.  Thus  vainly  did  the  colony  of  Mary- 
land struggle  with  the  problem  of  race  intermixture.  Generally 
throughout  the  South  the  rule  in  the  matter  of  the  child 
of  the  Negro  father  and  the  indentured  white  mother  was 
that  the  child  should  be  bound  in  servitude  for  thirty  or  thirty- 
one  years. 

In  the  North  as  well  as  in  the  South  the  intermingling 
:  of  the  blood  of  the  races  was  discountenanced.  In  Pennsyl- 
vania as  early  as  1 677  a  white  servant  was  indicted  for  cohabit- 
ing with  a  Negro.  In  1698  the  Chester  County  court  laid 
it  down  as  a  principle  that  the  mingling  of  the  races  was  not 
to  be  allowed.  In  1722  a  woman  was  punished  for  promoting 
a  secret  marriage  between  a  white  woman  and  a  Negro;  a 
little  later  the  Assembly  received  from  the  inhabitants  of 
the  province  a  petition  inveighing  against  cohabiting;  and  in 
1725-6  a  law  was  passed  positively  forbidding  the  mixture 
of  the  races.*  In  Massachusetts  as  early  as  1705  and  1708 
restraining  acts  to  prevent  a  "spurious  and  mixt  issue"  ordered 
the  sale  of  offending  Negroes  and  mulattoes  out  of  the  colony's 
jurisdiction,  and  punished  Christians  who  intermarried  with 
them  by  a  fine  of  £50.  After  the  Revolutionary  War  such 
marriages  were  declared  void  and  the  penalty  of  £50  was  still 
exacted,  and  not  until  1843  was  this  act  repealed.  Thus  was 
the  color-line,  with  its  social  and  legal  distinctions,  extended 
beyond  the  conditions  of  servitude  and  slavery,  and  thus  early 
*  Turner :    The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  29-30. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  31 

was   an   important   phase    of    the   ultimate    Negro    Problem 
foreshadowed. 

Generally  then,  in  the  South,  in  the  colonial  period,  the  free 
Negro  could  not  vote,  could  not  hold  civil  office,  could  not 
give  testimony  in  cases  involving  white  men,  and  could  be 
employed  only  for  fatigue  duty  in  the  militia.  He  could  not 
purchase  white  servants,  could  not  intermarry  with  white 
people,  and  had  to  be  very  circumspect  in  his  relations  with 
slaves.  No  deprivation  of  privilege,  however,  relieved  him 
of  the  obligation  to  pay  taxes.  Such  advantages  as  he  pos- 
sessed were  mainly  economic.  The  money  gained  from  his 
labor  was  his  own;  he  might  become  skilled  at  a  trade;  he 
might  buy  land ;  he  might  buy  slaves ;  *  he  might  even  buy 
his  wife  and  child  if,  as  most  frequently  happened,  they  were 
slaves;  and  he  might  have  one  gun  with  which  to  protect  his 
home.f  Once  in  a  long  while  he  might  even  find  some  oppor- 
tunity for  education,  as  when  the  church  became  the  legal 
warden  ofvNegro  apprentices.  Frequently  he  found  a  place 
in  such  a  trade  as  that  of  the  barber  or  in  other  personal 
service,  and  such  work  accounted  very  largely  for  the  fact 
that  he  was  generally  permitted  to  remain  in  communities 
where  technically  he  had  no  right  to  be.  In  the  North  his 
situation  was  little  better  than  in  the  South,  and  along  economic 
lines  even  harder.  Everywhere  his  position  was  a  difficult 
one.  He  was  most  frequently  regarded  as  f idle,  and  shiftless, 
and  as  a  breeder  of  mischief;  but  if  he  stowed  unusual  thrift 
he  might  even  be  forced  to  leave  his  home  and  go  elsewhere. 
Liberty,  the  boon  of  every  citizen,  the  free  Negro  did  not 
possess.  For  all  the  finer  things  of  life — the  things  that 
make  life  worth  living — the  lot  that  was  his  was  only  less 
hard  than  that  of  the  slave. 

*  Russell:  The  Free  Negro  in  Virginia,  32-33,  cites  from  the  court 
records  of  Northampton  County,  1651-1654  and  1655-1658,  the  noteworthy 
case  of  a  free  negro,  Anthony  Johnson,  who  had  come  to  Virginia  not 
later  than  1622  and  who  by  1650  owned  a  large  tract  of  land  on  the 
Eastern  Shore.  To  him  belonged  a  Negro,  John  Casor.  After  several 
years  of  labor  Casor  demanded  his  freedom  on  the  ground  that  from 
the  first  he  had  been  an  indentured  servant  and  not  a  slave.  When  the 
case  came  up  in  court,  however,  not  only  did  Johnson  win  the  verdict 
that  Casor  was  his  slave,  but  he  also  won  his  suit  against  Robert  Parker, 
a  white  man,  who  he  asserted  had  illegally  detained  Casor. 

tHening:    Statutes,  IV,  131. 


32       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 
3.     First  Effort  for  Social  Betterment 

If  now  we  turn  aside  from  laws  and  statutes  and  consider 
the  ordinary  life  and  social  intercourse  of  the  Negro,  we 
shall  find  more  than  one  contradiction,  for  in  the  colonial 
era  codes  affecting  slaves  and  free  Negroes  had  to  grope  their 
way  to  uniformity.  Especially  is  it  necessary  to  distinguish 
between  the  earlier  and  the  later  years  of  the  period,  for  as 
early  as  1760  the  liberalism  of  the  Revolutionary  era  began 
to  be  felt.  If  we  consider  what  was  strictly  the  colonial 
epoch,  we  may  find  it  necessary  to  make  a  division  about  the 
year  1705.  Before  this  date  the  status  of  the  Negro  was 
complicated  by  the  incidents  of  the  system  of  servitude;  after 
it,  however,  in  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts 
alike,  special  discrimination  against  him  on  account  of  race 
was  given  formal  recognition. 

By  171 5  there  were  in  Virginia  23,000  Negroes,  and  in 
all  the  colonies  58,850,  or  14  per  cent  of  the  total  population.* 
By  1756,  however,  the  Negroes  in  Virginia  numbered  120,156 
and  the  white  people  but  173,316^  Thirty-eight  of  the  forty- 
nine  counties  had  more  Negro  than  white  tithables,  and  eleven 
of  the  counties  had  a  Negro  population  varying  from  one- 
fourth  to  one-half  more  than  the  white.  A  great  many  of 
the  Negroes  had  only  recently  been  imported  from  Africa, 
and  they  were  especially  baffling  to  their  masters  of  course 
when  they  conversed  in  their  native  tongues.  At  first  only 
men  were  brought,  but  soon  women  came  also,  and  the  treat- 
ment accorded  these  people  varied  all  the  way  from  occasional 
indulgence  to  the  utmost  cruelty.  The  hours  of  work  regu- 
larly extended  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  though  corn-husking 
and  rice-beating  were  sometimes  continued  after  dark,  and 
overseers  were  almost  invariably  ruthless,  often  having  a  share 
in  the  crops.  Those  who  were  house-servants  would  go  about 
only  partially  clad,  and  the  slave  might  be  marked  or  branded 
like  one  of  the  lower  animals;  he  was  not  thought  to  have 
a  soul,  and  the  law  sought  to  deprive  him  of  all  human 
attributes.    Holiday  amusement  consisted  largely  of  the  dances 

*  Blake:    History  of  Slavery  and  the  Slave-Trade,  378. 
t  Ballagh  :     Slavery  in  Virginia,  12. 


# 


V 

THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  33 

that  the  Negroes  had  brought  with  them,  these  being  accom- 
panied by  the  beating  of  drums  and  the  blowing  of  horns; 
and  funeral  ceremonies  featured  African  mummeries.  For 
those  who  were  criminal  offenders  simple  execution  was  not 
always  considered  severe  enough;  the  right  hand  might  first 
be  amputated,  the  criminal  then  hanged  and  his  head  cut  off, 
and  his  body  quartered  and  the  parts  suspended  in  public 
places.  Sometimes  the  hanging  was  in  chains,  and  several 
instances  of  burning  are  on  record.  A  master  was  regularly 
reimbursed  by  the  government  for  a  slave  legally  executed, 
and  in  1714  there  was  a  complaint  in  South  Carolina  that  the 
treasury  had  become  almost  exhausted  by  such  reimburse- 
ments. In  Massachusetts  hanging  was  the  worst  legal  penalty, 
but  the  obsolete  common-law  punishment  was  revived  in  1755 
to  burn  alive  a  slave-woman  who  had  killed  her  master  in 
Cambridge.* 

The  relations  between  the  free  Negro  and  the  slave  might 
well  have  given  cause  for  concern.  Above  what  was  after 
all  only  an  artificial  barrier  spoke  the  call  of  race  and  fre- 
quently of  kindred.  Sometimes  at  a  later  date  jealousy  arose 
when  a  master  employed  a  free  Negro  to  work  with  his 
slaves,  the  one  receiving  pay  and  the  others  laboring  without 
compensation.  In  general,  however,  the  two  groups  worked 
like  brothers,  each  giving  the  other  the  benefit  of  any  tem- 
porary advantage  that  it  possessed.  Sometimes  the  free  Negro 
could  serve  by  reason  of  the  greater  freedom  of  movement 
that  he  had,  and  if  no  one  would  employ  him,  or  if,  as  fre- 
quently happened,  he  was  browbeaten  and  cheated  out  of 
the  reward  of  his  labor,  the  slave  might  somehow  see  that  he 
got  something  to  eat.  In  a  state  of  society  in  which  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave  was  the  rule,  there  was  of  course 
little  place  for  either  the  free  Negro  or  the  poor  white  man. 
When  the  pressure  became  too  great  the  white  man  moved 
away;  the  Negro,  finding  himself  everywhere  buffeted,  in  the 
colonial  era  at  least  had  little  choice  but  to  work  out  his  salva- 
tion at  home  as  well  as  he  could.  More  and  more  character 
told,  and  if  a  man  had  made  himself  known  for  his  industry 

*  Edward  Eggleston :  "Social  Conditions  in  the  Colonies,"  in  Century 
Magazine,  October,  1884,  p.  863. 


34       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  usefulness,  a  legislative  act  might  even  be  passed  per- 
mitting him  to  remain  in  the  face  of  a  hostile  law.  Even 
before  1700  there  were  in  Virginia  families  in  which  both 
parents  were  free  colored  persons  and  in  which  every  effort 
was  made  to  bring  up  the  children  in  honesty  and  morality. 
When  some  prosperous  Negroes  found  themselves  able  to  do 
so,  they  occasionally  purchased  Negroes,  who  might  be 
their  own  children  or  brothers,  in  order  to  give  them  that 
protection  without  which  on  account  of  recent  manumission 
they  might  be  required  to  leave  the  colony  in  which  they  were 
.borjirJ  Thus,  whatever  the  motive,  the  tie  that  bound  the 
free  Negro  and  the  slave  was  a  strong  one;  and  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  Negroes  who  owned  slaves  were  generally  known 
as  hard  masters,  as  soon  as  any  men  of  the  race  began  to 
be  really  prominent  their  best  endeavor  was  devoted  to  the 
advancement  of  their  people.  It  was  not  until  immediately 
after  the  Revolutionary  War,  however,  that  leaders  of  vision 
and  statesmanship  began  to  be  developed. 

It  was  only  the  materialism  of  the  eighteenth  century 
that  accounted  for  the  amazing  development  of  the  system 
of  Negro  slavery,  and  only  this  that  defeated  the  benevolence 
of  Oglethorpe's  scheme  for  the  founding  of  Georgia.  As  yet 
there  was  no  united  protest — no  general  movement  for  free- 
dom; and  as  Von  Hoist  said  long  afterwards,  "If  the  agitation 
had  been  wholly  left  to  the  churches,  it  would  have  been  long 
before  men  could  have  rightly  spoken  of  'a  slavery  question.' ' 
The  Puritans,  however,  were  not  wholly  unmindful  of  the 
evil,  and  the  Quakers  were  untiring  in  their  opposition,  though 
it  was  Roger  Williams  who  in  1637  made  the  first  protest 
that  appears  in  the  colonies.*  Both  John  Eliot  and  Cotton 
Mather  were  somewhat  generally  concerned  about  the  harsh 
treatment  of  the  Negro  and  the  neglect  of  his  spiritual  welfare. 
Somewhat  more  to  the  point  was  Richard  Baxter,  the  eminent 
English  nonconformist,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  both  of 
these  men.  "Remember,"  said  he,  in  speaking  of  Negroes 
and  other  slaves,  "that  they  are  of  as  good  a  kind  as  you ;  that 
is,  they  are  reasonable  creatures  as  well  as  you,  and  born  to 

*For    this    and    the    references    immediately    following    note    Locke: 
Anti-Slavery  in  America,  n- AS- 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  35 

as  much  natural  liberty.  If  their  sin  have  enslaved  them  to 
you,  yet  Nature  made  them  your  equals."  On  the  subject 
of  man-stealing  he  is  even  stronger:  "To  go  as  pirates  and 
catch  up  poor  Negroes  or  people  of  another  land,  that  never 
forfeited  life  or  liberty,  and  to  make  them  slaves,  and  sell 
them,  is  one  of  the  worst  kinds  of  thievery  in  the  world." 
Such  statements,  however,  were  not  more  than  the  voice 
of  individual  opinion.  The  principles  of  the  Quakers  carried 
them  far  beyond  the  Puritans,  and  their  history  shows  what 
might  have  been  accomplished  if  other  denominations  had  been 
as  sincere  and  as  unselfish  as  the  Society  of  Friends.  The 
Germantown  protest  of  1688  has  already  been  remarked.  In 
1693  George  Keith,  in  speaking  of  fugitives,  quoted  with  tell- 
ing effect  the  text,  "Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the 
servant  which  is  escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee"  (Deut. 
23.15).  In  1696  the  Yearly  Meeting  in  Pennsylvania  first 
took  definite  action  in  giving  as  its  advice  "that  Friends  be 
careful  not  to  encourage  the  bringing  in  of  any  more  Negroes ; 
and  that  such  that  have  Negroes,  be  careful  of  them,  bring 
them  to  meetings,  have  meetings  with  them  in  their  families, 
and  restrain  them  from  loose  and  lewd  living  as  much  as  in 
them  lies,  and  from  rambling  abroad  on  First-days  or  other 
times."  *  As  early  as  1713  the  Quakers  had  in  mind  a  scheme 
for  freeing  the  Negroes  and  returning  them  to  Africa,  and  by 
1 71 5  their  efforts  against  importation  had  seriously  impaired 
the  market  for  slaves  in  Philadelphia.  Within  a  century  after 
the  Germantown  protest  the  abolition  of  slavery  among  the 
Quakers  was  practically  accomplished. 

In  the  very  early  period  there  seems  to  have  been  little 
objection  to  giving  a  free  Negro  not  only  religious  but  also 
secular  instruction;  indeed  he  might  be  entitled  to  this,  as  in 
Virginia,  where  in  1691  the  church  became  the  agency  through 
which  the  laws  of  Negro  apprenticeship  were  carried  out; 
thus  in  1727  it  was  ordered  that  David  James,  a  free  Negro 
boy,  be  bound  to  Mr.  James  Isdel,  who  was  to  "teach  him  to 
read  the  Bible  distinctly,  also  the  trade  of  a  gunsmith"  and 
"carry  him  to  the  clerk's  office  and  take  indenture  to  that 

*  Brief  Statement  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Testimony  of  the 
Religious  Society  of  Friends  against  Slavery  and  the  Slave-Trade,  8. 


36      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

purpose."  *  In  general  the  English  church  did  a  good  deal 
to  provide  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  free  Negro; 
"the  reports  made  in  1724  to  the  English  bishop  by  the  Vir- 
ginia parish  ministers  are  evidence  that  the  few  free  Negroes 
in  the  parishes  were  permitted  to  be  baptized,  and  were  received 
into  the  church  when  they  had  been  taught  the  catechism."  f 
Among  Negroes,  moreover,  as  well  as  others  in  the  colonies 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts 
was  active.  As  early  as  1705,  in  Goose  Creek  Parish  in  South 
Carolina,  among  a  population  largely  recently  imported  from 
Africa,  a  missionary  had  among  his  communicants  twenty 
blacks  who  well  understood  the  English  tongue.  J  The  most 
effective  work  of  the  Society,  however,  was  in  New  York, 
where  as  early  as  1704  a  school  was  opened  by  Elias  Neau, 
a  Frenchman  who  after  several  years  of  imprisonment  because 
of  his  Protestant  faith  had  come  to  New  York  to  try  his  for- 
tune as  a  trader.  In  1703  he  had  called  the  attention  of  the 
Society  to  the  Negroes  who  were  "without  God  in  the  world, 
and  of  whose  souls  there  was  no  manner  of  care  taken,"  and 
had  suggested  the  appointment  of  a  catechist.  He  himself 
was  prevailed  upon  to  take  up  the  work  and  he  accordingly 
resigned  his  position  as  an  elder  in  the  French  church  and 
conformed  to  the  Church  of  England.  He  worked  with 
success  for  a  number  of  years,  but  in  171 2  was  embarrassed 
by  the  charge  that  his  school  fomented  the  insurrection  that 
was  planned  in  that  year.  He  finally  showed,  however,  that 
only  one  of  his  students  was  in  any  way  connected  with 
the  uprising. 

From  slave  advertisements  of  the  eighteenth  century  §  we 
may  gain  many  sidelights  not  only  on  the  education  of  Negroes 
in  the  colonial  era,  but  on  their  environment  and  suffering 
as  well.  One  slave  "can  write  a  pretty  good  hand;  plays  on 
the  fife  extremely  well."  Another  "can  both  read  and  write 
and  is  a  good  fiddler."  Still  others  speak  "Dutch  and  good 
English,"  "good  English  and  High  Dutch,"  or  "Swede  and 

*  Russell :     The  Free  Negro  in  Virginia,  138-9. 
t  Ibid.,  138. 

t  C  E.  Pierre,  in  Journal  of  Negro  History,  October,  1916,  p.  350. 
§  See  documents,  "Eighteenth  Century  Slave  Advertisements,"  Journal 
of  Negro  History,  April,  1916,  163-216. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  37 

English  well."  Charles  Thomas  of  Delaware  bore  the  follow- 
ing remarkable  characterization :  "Very  black,  has  white  teeth 
.  .  .  has  had  his  left  leg  broke  .  .  .  speaks  both  French  and 
English,  and  is  a  very  great  rogue."  One  man  who  came 
from  the  West  Indies  "was  born  in  Dominica  and  speaks 
French,  but  very  little  English ;  he  is  a  very  ill-natured  fellow 
and  has  been  much  cut  in  his  back  by  often  whipping."  A 
Negro  named  Simon  who  in  1740  ran  away  in  Pennsylvania 
"could  bleed  and  draw  teeth  pretending  to  be  a  great  doctor." 
Worst  of  all  the  incidents  of  slavery,  however,  was  the  lack 
of  regard  for  home  ties,  and  this  situation  of  course  obtained 
in  the  North  as  well  as  the  South.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  marriages  in  New  York  were  by  mutual 
consent  only,  without  the  blessing  of  the  church,  and  burial 
was  in  a  common  field  without  any  Christian  office.  In  Massa- 
chusetts in  1 7 10  Rev.  Samuel  Phillips  drew  up  a  marriage 
formulary  especially  designed  for  slaves  and  concluding  as 
follows:  "For  you  must  both  of  you  bear  in  mind  that  you 
remain  still,  as  really  and  truly  as  ever,  your  master's  property, 
and  therefore  it  will  be  justly  expected,  both  by  God  and 
man,  that  you  behave  and  conduct  yourselves  as  obedient  and 
faithful  servants."  *  In  Massachusetts,  however,  as  in  New 
York,  marriage  was  most  often  by  common  consent  simply, 
without  the  office  of  ministers. 

As  yet  there  was  no  racial  consciousness,  no  church,  no  busi- 
ness organization,  and  the  chief  cooperative  effort  was  in 
insurrection.  Until  the  great  chain  of  slavery  was  thrown 
off,  little  independent  effort  could  be  put  forth.  Even  in  the 
state  of  servitude  or  slavery,  however,  the  social  spirit  of 
the  race  yearned  to  assert  itself,  and  such  an  event  as  a  funeral 
was  attractive  primarily  because  of  the  social  features  that 
it  developed.  As  early  as  1693  there  is  record  of  the  forma- 
tion of  a  distinct  society  by  Negroes.  In  one  of  his  manu- 
script diaries,  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,f  Cotton  Mather  in  October  of  this  year 
wrote  as  follows :  "Besides  the  other  praying  and  pious  meet- 

*  Quoted  from  Williams :  Centennial  Oration,  "The  American  Negro 
from  1776  to  1876,"  10. 

t  See  Rules  for  the  Society  of  Negroes,  1693,  by  Cotton  Mather, 
reprinted,  New  York,  1888,  by  George  H.  Moore. 


38      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ings  which  I  have  been  continually  serving  in  our  neighbor- 
hood, a  little  after  this  period  a  company  of  poor  Negroes,  of 
their  own  accord,  addressed  me,  for  my  countenance  to  a 
design  which  they  had,  of  erecting  such  a  meeting  for  the 
welfare  of  their  miserable  nation,  that  were  servants  among 
us.  I  allowed  their  design  and  went  one  evening  and  prayed 
and  preached  (on  Ps.  68.31)  with  them;  and  gave  them  the 
following  orders,  which  I  insert  duly  for  the  curiosity  of 
the  occasion."  The  Rules  to  which  Mather  here  refers  are 
noteworthy  as  containing  not  one  suggestion  of  anti-slavery 
sentiment,  and  as  portraying  the  altogether  abject  situation 
of  the  Negro  at  the  time  he  wrote;  nevertheless  the  text  used 
was  an  inspiring  one,  and  in  any  case  the  document  must  have 
historical  importance  as  the  earliest  thing  that  has  come  down 
to  us  in  the  nature  of  the  constitution  or  by-laws  for  a  dis- 
«  (I  tinctively  Negro  organization.     It  is  herewith  given  entire: 

Rules  for  the  Society  of  Negroes. 

1693. 

We  the  Miserable  Children  of  Adam,  and  of  Noah,  thankfully 
Admiring  and  Accepting  the  Free-Grace  of  GOD,  that  Offers  to 
Save  us  from  our  Miseries,  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  freely  Resolve, 
with  His  Help,  to  become  the  Servants  of  that  Glorious  LORD. 

And  that  we  may  be  Assisted  in  the  Service  of  our  Heavenly 
Master,  we  now  join  together  in  a  SOCIETY,  wherein  the  follow- 
ing RULES  are  to  be  observed. 

I.  It  shall  be  our  Endeavor,  to  Meet  in  the  Evening  after  the 
Sabbath;  and  Pray  together  by  Turns,  one  to  Begin,  and 
another  to  Conclude  the  Meeting;  And  between  the  two 
Prayers,  a  Psalm  shall  be  sung,  and  a  Sermon  Repeated. 
II.  Our  coming  to  the  Meeting,  shall  never  be  without  the  Leave 
of  such  as  have  Power  over  us:  And  we  will  be  Careful, 
that  our  Meeting  may  Begin  and  Conclude  between  the 
Hours  of  Seven  and  Nine;  and  that  we  may  not  be  un- 
seasonably Absent  from  the  Families  whereto  we  pertain. 
III.  As  we  will,  with  the  help  of  God,  at  all  Times  avoid  all 
Wicked  Company,  so  we  will  Receive  none  into  our  Meet- 
ing, but  such  as  have  sensibly  Reformed  their  lives  from 
all  manner  of  Wickedness.  And,  therefore,  None  shall  be 
Admitted,  without  the  Knowledge  and  Consent  of  the  Min- 
ister of  God  in  this  place;  unto  whom  we  will  also  carry 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  39 

every  Person,  that  seeks  for  Admission  among  us ;  to  be  by 
Him  Examined,  Instructed  and  Exhorted. 
IV.  We  will,  as  often  as  may  be,  Obtain  some  Wise  and  Good 
Man,  of  the  English  in  the  Neighborhood,  and  especially 
the  Officers  of  the  Church,  to  look  in  upon  us,  and  by  their 
Presence  and  Counsel,  do  what  they  think  fitting  for  us. 
V.  If  any  of  our  Number  fall  into  the  Sin  of  Drunkenness,  or 
Swearing,  or  Cursing,  or  Lying,  or  Stealing,  or  notorious 
Disobedience  or  Unfaithfulness  unto  their  Masters,  we  will 
Admonish  him  of  his  Miscarriage,  and  Forbid  his  coming 
to  the  Meeting,  for  at  least  one  Fortnight;  And  except  he 
then  come  with  great  Signs  and  Hopes  of  his  Repentance, 
we  will  utterly  Exclude  him,  with  Blotting  his  Name  out 
of  our  list. 
VI.  If  any  of  our  Society  Defile  himself  with  Fornication,  we  will 
give  him  our  Admonition;  and  so,  debar  him  from  the 
Meeting,  at  least  half  a  Year:  Nor  shall  he  Return  to  it, 
ever  any  more,  without  Exemplary  Testimonies  of  his  be- 
coming a  New  Creature. 
VII.  We  will,  as  we  have  Opportunity,  set  ourselves  to  do  all  the 
Good  we  can,  to  the  other  Negro-Servants  in  the  Town; 
And  if  any  of  them  should,  at  unfit  Hours,  be  Abroad, 
much  more,  if  any  of  them  should  Run  away  from  their 
Masters,  we  will  afford  them  no  Shelter:  But  we  will  do 
what  in  us  lies,  that  they  may  be  discovered,  and  punished. 
And  if  any  of  us  are  found  Faulty  in  this  matter,  they 
shall  be  no  longer  of  us. 
VIII.  None  of  our  Society  shall  be  Absent  from  our  Meeting,  with- 
out giving  a  Reason  of  the  Absence;  and  if  it  be  found, 
that  any  have  pretended  unto  their  Owners,  that  they  came 
unto  the  Meeting,  when  they  were  otherwise  and  elsewhere 
Employed,  we  will  faithfully  Inform  their  Owners,  and 
also  do  what  we  can  to  Reclaim  such  Person  from  all  such 
Evil  Courses. for  the  Future. 
IX.  It  shall  be  expected  from  every  one  in  the  Society,  that  he 
learn  the  Catechism;  And  therefore,  it  shall  be  one  of  our 
usual  Exercises,  for  one  of  us,  to  ask  the  Questions,  and 
for  all  the  rest  in  their  Order,  to  say  the  Answers  in  the 
Catechism;  Either,  The  New  English  Catechism,  or  the 
Assemblies  Catechism,  or  the  Catechism  in  the  Negro 
Christianised. 


4.     Early  Insurrections 

The  Negroes  who  came  to  America  directly  from  Africa 
in  the  eighteenth  century  were  strikingly  different  from  those 


40      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

-whom  generations  of  servitude  later  made  comparatively 
/  docile.  They  were  wild  and  turbulent  in  disposition  and  were 
likely  at  any  moment  to  take  revenge  for  the  great  wrong 
that  had  been  inflicted  upon  them.  The  planters  in  the  South 
knew  this  and  lived  in  constant  fear  of  uprisings.  When  the 
situation  became  too  threatening,  they  placed  prohibitive  duties 
on  importations,  and  they  also  sought  to  keep  their  slaves  in 
subjection  by  barbarous  and  cruel  modes  of  punishment,  both 
crucifixion  and  burning  being  legalized  in  some  early  codes. 
On  sea  as  well  as  on  land  Negroes  frequently  rose  upon  those 
who  held  them  in  bondage,  and  sometimes  they  actually  won 
tfieir  freedorri~3  More  and  more,  however,  in  any  study  of 
Negro  insurrections  it  becomes  difficult  to  distinguish  between 
a  clearly  organized  revolt  and  what  might  be  regarded  as 
simply  a  personal  crime,  so  that  those  uprisings  considered 
in  the  following  discussion  can  only  be  construed  as  the  more 
representative  of  the  many  attempts  for  freedom  made  by 
Negro  slaves  in  the  colonial  era. 

In  1687  there  was  in  Virginia  a  conspiracy  among  the 
Negroes  in  the  Northern  Neck  that  was  detected  just  in  time 
to  prevent  slaughter,  and  in  Surry  County  in  1710  there  was 
a  similar  plot,  betrayed  by  one  of  the  conspirators.  In  171 1, 
in  South  Carolina,  several  Negroes  ran  away  from  their 
masters  and  "kept  out,  armed,  robbing  and  plundering  houses 
and  plantations,  and  putting  the  inhabitants  of  the  province 
in  great  fear  and  terror" ;  *  and  Governor  Gibbes  more  than 
once  wrote  to  the  legislature  about  amending  the  Negro  Act, 
as  the  one  already  in  force  did  "not  reach  up  to  some  of  the 
crimes"  that  were  daily  being  committed.  For  one  Sebastian, 
"a  Spanish  Negro,"  alive  or  dead,  a  reward  of  £50  was 
offered,  and  he  was  at  length  brought  in  by  the  Indians  and 
taken  in  triumph  to  Charleston.  In  1712  in  New  York 
occurred  an  outbreak  that  occasioned  greater  excitement  than 
any  uprising  that  had  preceded  it  in  the  colonies.  Early  in 
the  morning  of  April  7  some  slaves  of  the  Carmantee  and 
Pappa  tribes  who  had  suffered  ill-usage,  set  on  fire  the  house 
of  Peter  van  Tilburgh,  and,  armed  with  guns  and  knives, 
killed  and  wounded  several  persons  who  came  to  extinguish 
*  Holland :  A  Refutation  of  Calumnies,  63. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  41 

the  flames.  They  fled,  however,  when  the  Governor  ordered 
the  cannon  to  be  fired  to  alarm  the  town,  and  they  got  away 
to  the  woods  as  well  as  they  could,  but  not  before  they  had 
killed  several  more  of  the  citizens.  Some  shot  themselves 
in  the  woods  and  others  were  captured.  Altogether  eight 
or  ten  white  persons  were  killed,  and,  aside  from  those  Negroes 
who  had  committed  suicide,  eighteen  or  more  were  executed, 
several  others  being  transported.  Of  those  executed  one  was 
hanged  alive  in  chains,  some  were  burned  at  the  stake,  and 
one  was  left  to  die  a  lingering  death  before  the  gaze  of  the 
town. 

In  May,  1720,  some  Negroes  in  South  Carolina  were  fairly 
well  organized  and  killed  a  man  named  Benjamin  Cattle,  one 
white  woman,  and  a  little  Negro  boy.  They  were  pursued 
and  twenty-three  taken  and  six  convicted.  Three  of  the  latter 
were  executed,  the  other  three  escaping.  In  October,  1722,  the 
Negroes  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rappahannock  in  Virginia 
undertook  to  kill  the  white  people  while  the  latter  were 
assembled  in  church,  but  were  discovered  and  put  to  flight. 
On  this  occasion,  as  on  most  others,  Sunday  was  the  day 
chosen  for  the  outbreak,  the  Negroes  then  being  best  able 
to  get  together.  In  April,  1723,  it  was  thought  that  some 
fires  in  Boston  had  been  started  by  Negroes,  and  the  select- 
men recommended  that  if  more  than  two  Negroes  were  found 
"lurking  together"  on  the  streets  they  should  be  put  in  the 
house  of  correction.  In  1728  there  was  a  well  organized 
attempt  in  Savannah,  then  a  place  of  three  thousand  white 
people  and  two  thousand  seven  hundred  Negroes.  The  plan 
to  kill  all  the  white  people  failed  because  of  disagreement 
as  to  the  exact  method;  but  the  body  of  Negroes  had  to  be 
fired  on  more  than  once  before  it  dispersed.  In  1730  there 
was  in  Williamsburg,  Va.,  an  insurrection  that  grew  out 
of  a  report  that  Colonel  Spotswood  had  orders  from  the 
king  to  free  all  baptized  persons  on  his  arrival;  men  from 
all  the  surrounding  counties  had  to  be  called  in  before  it 
could  be  put  down. 

The  first  open  rebellion  in  South  Carolina  in  which  Negroes 
were  "actually  armed  and  embodied"  *   took  place  in   1730. 

*  Holland:    A  Refutation  of  Caluntnies,  68. 


42      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

^  The  plan  was  for  each  Negro  to  kill  his  master  in  the  dead 
of  night,  then  for  all  to  assemble  supposedly  for  a  dancing- 
bout,  rush  upon  the  heart  of  the  city,  take  possession  of  the 
arms,  and  kill  any  white  man  they  saw.  The  plot  was  dis- 
covered and  the  leaders  executed.  In  this  same  colony  three 
formidable  insurrections  broke  out  within  the  one  year  1739 
— one  in  St.  Paul's  Parish,  one  in  St.  John's,  and  one  in 
Charleston.  To  some  extent  these  seem  to  have  been  fomented 
by  the  Spaniards  in  the  South,  and  in  one  of  them  six  houses 
were  burned  and  as  many  as  twenty-five  white  people  killed. 
The  Negroes  were  pursued  and  fourteen  killed.  Within  two 
days  "twenty  more  were  killed,  and  forty  were  taken,  some 
of  whom  were  shot,  some  hanged,  and  some  gibbeted  alive."  * 
This  "examplary  punishment,"  as  Governor  Gibbes  called  it, 
was  by  no  means  effective,  for  in  the  very  next  year,  1740, 
there  broke  out  what  might  be  considered  the  most  formidable 
insurrection  in  the  South  in  the  whole  colonial  period.  A 
number  of  Negroes,  having  assembled  at  Stono,  first  surprised 
and  killed  two  young  men  in  a  warehouse,  from  which  they 
then  took  guns  and  ammunition,  f  They  then  elected  as  cap- 
tain one  of  their  own  number  named  Cato,  whom  they  agreed 
to  follow,  and  they  marched  towards  the  southwest,  with 
drums  beating  and  colors  flying,  like  a  disciplined  company. 
They  entered  the  home  of  a  man  named  Godfrey,  and  having 
murdered  him  and  his  wife  and  children,  they  took  all  the 
arms  he  had,  set  fire  to  the  house,  and  proceeded  towards 
Jonesboro.  On  their  way  they  plundered  and  burned  every 
house  to  which  they  came,  killing  every  white  person  they 
found  and  compelling  the  Negroes  to  join  them.  Governor 
Bull,  who  happened  to  be  returning  to  Charleston  from  the 
southward,  met  them,  and  observing  them  armed,  spread  the 
alarm,  which  soon  reached  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Wilton, 
where  a  number  of  planters  was  assembled.  The  women 
were  left  in  the  church  trembling  with  fear,  while  the  militia 
formed  and  marched  in  quest  of  the  Negroes,  who  by  this 
time  had  become  formidable  from  the  number  that  had  joined 
them.     They  had  marched  twelve  miles  and  spread  desolation 

*  Coffin. 

t  The  following  account  follows  mainly  Holland,  quoting  Hewitt. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  43 

through  all  the  plantations  on  their  way.  They  had  then 
halted  in  an  open  field  and  too  soon  had  begun  to  sing  and 
drink  and  dance  by  way  of  triumph.  During  these  rejoicings 
the  militia  discovered  them  and  stationed  themselves  in  differ- 
ent places  around  them  to  prevent  their  escape.  One  party 
then  advanced  into  the  open  field  and  attacked  the  Negroes. 
Some  were  killed  and  the  others  were  forced  to  the  woods. 
Many  ran  back  to  the  plantations,  hoping  thus  to  avoid  sus- 
picion, but  most  of  them  were  taken  and  tried.  Such  as  had 
been  forced  to  join  the  uprising  against  their  will  were  par- 
doned, but  all  of  the  chosen  leaders  and  the  first  insurgents 
were  put  to  death.  All  Carolina,  we  are  told,  was  struck  with 
terror  and  consternation  by  this  insurrection,  in  which  more 
than  twenty  white  persons  Were  killed.  It  was  followed 
immediately  by  the  famous  and  severe  Negro  Act  of  1740, 
which  among  other  provisions  imposed  a  duty  of  £100  on 
Africans  and  £150  on  colonial  Negroes.  This  remained  tech- 
nically in  force  until  1822,  and  yet  as  soon  as  security  and 
confidence  were  restored,  there  was  a  relaxation  in  the  execu- 
tion of  the  provisions  of  the  act  and  the  Negroes  little  by 
little  regained  confidence  in  themselves  and  again  began  to 
plan  and  act  in  concert. 

About  the  time  of  Cato's  insurrection  there  were  also  several 
uprisings  at  sea.  In  1 73 1 ,  on  a  ship  returning  to  Rhode  Island 
from  Guinea  with  a  cargo  of  slaves,  the  Negroes  rose  and 
killed  three  of  the  crew,  all  the  members  of  which  died  soon 
afterwards  with  the  exception  of  the  captain  and  his  boy. 
The  next  year  Captain  John  Major  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
was  murdered  with  all  his  crew,  his  schooner  and  cargo  being 
seized  by  the  slaves.  In  1735  the  captives  on  the  Dolphin  of 
London,  while  still  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  overpowered  the 
crew,  broke  into  the  powder  room,  and  finally  in  the  course 
of  their  effort  for  freedom  blew  up  both  themselves  and 
the  crew. 

A  most  remarkable  design — as  an  insurrection  perhaps  not 
as  formidable  as  that  of  Cato,  but  in  some  ways  the  most 
important  single  event  in  the  history  of  the  Negro  in  the 
colonial  period — was  the  plot  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  1741. 
New  York  was  at  the  time  a  thriving  town  of  twelve  thousand 


44      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

inhabitants,  and  the  calamity  that  now  befell  it  was  unfor- 
tunate in  every  way.  It  was  not  only  a  Negro  insurrection, 
though  the  Negro  finally  suffered  most  bitterly.  It  was  also 
a  strange  compound  of  the  effects  of  whiskey  and  gambling, 
of  the  designs  of  abandoned  white  people,  and  of  prejudice 
against  the  Catholics. 

Prominent  in  the  remarkable  drama  were  John  Hughson, 
a  shoemaker  and  alehouse  keeper;  Sarah  Hughson,  his  wife; 
John  Romme,  also  a  shoemaker  and  alehouse  keeper ;  Margaret 
Kerry,  alias  Salinburgh,  commonly  known  as  Peggy;  John 
Ury,  a  priest;  and  a  number  of  Negroes,  chief  among  whom 
were  Caesar,  Prince,  Cuffee,  and  Quack.*  Prominent  among 
those  who  helped  to  work  out  the  plot  were  Mary  Burton, 
a  white  servant  of  Hughson's,  sixteen  years  of  age;  Arthur 
Price,  a  young  white  man  who  at  the  time  of  the  proceedings 
happened  to  be  in  prison  on  a  charge  of  stealing;  a  young 
seaman  named  Wilson;  and  two  white  women,  Mrs.  Earle 
and  Mrs.  Hogg,  the  latter  of  whom  assisted  in  the  store 
kept  by  her  husband,  Robert  Hogg.  Hughson's  house  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  town  was  a  resort  for  Negroes,  and  Hughson 
himself  aided  and  abetted  the  Negro  men  in  any  crime  that 
they  might  commit.  Romme  was  of  similar  quality.  Peggy 
was  a  prostitute,  and  it  was  Caesar  who  paid  for  her  board 
with  the  Hughsons.  In  the  previous  summer  she  had  found 
lodging  with  these  people,  a  little  later  she  had  removed 
to  Romme's,  and  just  before  Christmas  she  had  come  back 
to  Hughson's,  and  a  few  weeks  thereafter  she  became  a  mother. 
At  both  the  public  houses  the  Negroes  would  engage  in  drink- 
ing and  gambling;  and  importance  also  attaches  to  an  organi- 
zation of  theirs  known  as  the  Geneva  Society,  which  had 
angered  some  of  the  white  citizens  by  its  imitation  of  the  rites 
and  forms  of  freemasonry. 

Events  really  began  on  the  night  of  Saturday,  February  28, 
1 741,  with  a  robbery  in  the  house  of  Hogg,  the  merchant, 
from  which  were  taken  various  pieces  of  linen  and  other  goods, 

*  The  sole  authority  on  the  plot  is  "A  Journal  of  the  Proceedings  in 
the  Detection  of  the  Conspiracy  formed  by  Some  White  People,  in  Con- 
junction with  Negro  and  other  Slaves,  for  Burning  the  City  of  New 
York  in  America,  and  Murdering  the  Inhabitants  (by  Judge  Daniel  Horse- 
manden).    New  York,  1744." 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  45 

several  silver  coins,  chiefly  Spanish,  and  medals,  to  the  value  of 
about  £60.  On  the  day  before,  in  the  course  of  a  simple 
purchase  by  Wilson,  Mrs.  Hogg  had  revealed  to  the  young 
seaman  her  treasure.  He  soon  spoke  of  the  same  to  Caesar, 
Prince,  and  Cuffee,  with  whom  he  was  acquainted;  he  gave 
them  the  plan  of  the  house,  and  they  in  turn  spoke  of  the 
matter  to  Hughson.  Wilson,  however,  when  later  told  of 
the  robbery  by  Mrs.  Hogg,  at  once  turned  suspicion  upon  the 
Negroes,  especially  Caesar;  and  Mary  Burton  testified  that 
she  saw  some  of  the  speckled  linen  in  question  in  Peggy's 
room  after  Caesar  had  gone  thither 

On  Wednesday,  March  18,  a  fire  broke  out  on  the  roof  of 
His  Majesty's  House  at  Fort  George.  One  week  later,  on 
March  25,  there  was  a  fire  at  the  home  of  Captain  Warren 
in  the  southwest  end  of  the  city,  and  the  circumstances  pointed 
to  incendiary  origin.  One  week  later,  on  April  1,  there  was 
a  fire  in  the  storehouse  of  a  man  named  Van  Zant;  on  the 
following  Saturday  evening  there  was  another  fire,  and  while 
the  people  were  returning  from  this  there  was  still  another; 
and  on  the  next  day,  Sunday,  there  was  another  alarm,  and 
by  this  time  the  whole  town  had  been  worked  up  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  excitement.  As  yet  there  was  nothing  to 
point  to  any  connection  between  the  stealing  and  the  fires. 
On  the  day  of  the  last  one,  however,  Mrs.  Earle  happened 
to  overhear  remarks  by  three  Negroes  that  caused  suspicion 
to  light  upon  them;  Mary  Burton  was  insisting  that  stolen 
goods  had  been  brought  by  Prince  and  Caesar  to  the  house 
of  her  master;  and  although  a  search  of  the  home  of  Hugh- 
son  failed  to  produce  a  great  deal,  arrests  were  made  right 
and  left.  The  case  was  finally  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  because  of  the  white  persons  implicated,  the  summary 
methods  ordinarily  used  in  dealing  with  Negroes  were  waived 
for  the  time  being. 

Peggy  at  first  withstood  all  questioning,  denying  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  events  that  had  taken  place.  One  day  in  prison, 
however,  she  remarked  to  Arthur  Price  that  she  was  afraid 
the  Negroes  would  tell  but  that  she  would  not  forswear  her- 
self unless  they  brought  her  into  the  matter.  "How  forswear?" 
asked  Price.     "There  are  fourteen  sworn,"  she  said.     "What, 


46       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

is  it  about  Mr.  Hogg's  goods?"  he  asked.  "No,"  she  replied, 
"about  the  fire."  "What,  Peggy,"  asked  Price,  "were  you 
going  to  set  the  town  on  fire?"  "No,"  she  replied,  "but  since 
I  knew  of  it  they  made  me  swear."  She  also  remarked  that 
she  had  faith  in  Prince,  Cuff,  and  Caesar.  All  the  while  she 
used  the  vilest  possible  language,  and  at  last,  thinking  sud- 
denly that  she  had  revealed  too  much,  she  turned  upon  Price 
and  with  an  oath  warned  him  that  he  had  better  keep  his 
counsel.  That  afternoon  she  said  further  to  him  that  she 
could  not  eat  because  Mary  had  brought  her  into  the  case. 

A  little  later  Peggy,  much  afraid,  voluntarily  confessed 
that  early  in  May  she  was  at  the  home  of  John  Romme,  where 
in  the  course  of  December  the  Negroes  had  had  several  meet- 
ings; among  other  things  they  had  conspired  to  burn  the  fort 
first  of  all,  then  the  city,  then  to  get  all  the  goods  they  could 
and  kill  anybody  who  had  money.  One  evening  just  about 
Christmas,  she  said,  Romme  and  his  wife  and  ten  or  eleven 
Negroes  had  been  together  in  a  room.  Romme  had  talked 
about  how  rich  some  people  were,  gradually  working  on  the 
feelings  of  the  Negroes  and  promising  them  that  if  they 
did  not  succeed  in  their  designs  he  would  take  them  to  a 
strange  country  and  set  them  free,  meanwhile  giving  them  the 
impression  that  he  bore  a  charmed  life.  A  little  later,  it 
appeared,  Caesar  gave  to  Hughson  £12;  Hughson  was  then 
absent  for  three  days,  and  when  he  came  again  he  brought 
with  him  seven  or  eight  guns,  some  pistols,  and  some  swords. 

As  a  result  of  these  and  other  disclosures  it  was  seen  that 
not  only  Hughson  and  Romme  but  also  Ury,  who  was  not 
so  much  a  priest  as  an  adventurer,  had  instigated  the  plots 
of  the  Negroes;  and  Quack  testified  that  Hughson  was  the 
first  contriver  of  the  plot  to  burn  the  houses  of  the  town  and 
kill  the  people,  though  he  himself,  he  confessed,  did  fire  the 
fort  with  a  lighted  stick.  The  punishment  was  terrible.  Quack 
and  Cuffee,  the  first  to  be  executed,  were  burned  at  the  stake 
on  May  30.  All  through  the  summer  the  trials  and  the 
executions  continued,  harassing  New  York  and  indeed  the 
whole  country.  Altogether  twenty  white  persons  were 
arrested;  four — Hughson,  his  wife,  Peggy,  and  Ury — were 
executed,  and  some  of  their  acquaintances  were  forced  to  leave 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  COLONIES  47 

the  province.  One  hundred  and  fifty- four  Negroes  were 
arrested.  Thirteen  were  burned,  eighteen  were  hanged,  and 
seventy-one  transported. 


It  is  evident  from  these  events  and  from  the  legislation  of 
the  era  that,  except  for  the  earnest  work  of  such  a  sect  as  the 
Quakers,  there  was  little  genuine  effort  for  the  improvement 
of  the  social  condition  of  the  Negro  people  in  the  colonies. 
They  were  not  even  regarded  as  potential  citizens,  and  both 
in  and  out  of  the  system  of  slavery  were  subjected  to  the 
harshest  regulations.  Towards  amicable  relations  with  the 
other  racial  elements  that  were  coming  to  build  up  a  new 
country  only  the  slightest  measure  of  progress  was  made. 
Instead,  insurrection  after  insurrection  revealed  the  sharpest 
antagonism,  and  any  outbreak  promptly  called  forth  the 
severest  and  frequently  the  most  cruel  punishment. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    REVOLUTIONARY   ERA 

i.     Sentiment  in  England  and  America 

The  materialism  of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  all  of  its 
evils,  at  length  produced  a  liberalism  of  thought  that  was  to 
shake  to  their  very  foundations  old  systems  of  life  in  both 
Europe  and  America.  The  progress  of  the  cause  of  the 
Negro  in  this  period  is  to  be  explained  by  the  general  diffu- 
sion of  ideas  that  made  for  the  rights  of  man  everywhere. 
Cowper  wrote  his  humanitarian  poems ;  in  close  association 
with  the  romanticism  of  the  day  the  missionary  movement  in 
religion  began  to  gather  force;  and  the  same  impulse  which 
in  England  began  the  agitation  for  a  free  press  and  for  par- 
liamentary reform,  and  which  in  France  accounted  for  the 
French  Revolution,  in  America  led  to  the  revolt  from  Great 
Britain.  No  patriot  could  come  under  the  influence  of  any 
one  of  these  movements  without  having  his  heart  and  his 
sense  of  justice  stirred  to  some  degree  in  behalf  of  the 
slave.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  con- 
test of  the  Americans  was  primarily  for  the  definite  legal 
rights  of  Englishmen  rather  than  for  the  more  abstract  rights 
of  mankind  which  formed  the  platform  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution; hence  arose  the  great  inconsistency  in  the  position 
of  men  who  were  engaged  in  a  stern  struggle  for  liberty  at 
the  same  time  that  they  themselves  were  holding  human  beings 
in  bondage. 

In  England  the  new  era  was  formally  signalized  by  an 
epoch-making  decision.  In  November,  1769,  Charles  Stewart, 
once  a  merchant  in  Norfolk  and  later  receiver  general  of  the 
customs  of  North  America,  took  to  England  his  Negro  slave, 
James  Somerset,  who,  being  sick,  was  turned  adrift  by  his 
master.     Later  Somerset  recovered  and  Stewart  seized  him, 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  49 

intending  to  have  him  borne  out  of  the  country  and  sold  in 
Jamaica.  Somerset  objected  to  this  and  in  so  doing  raised 
the  important  legal  question,  Did  a  slave  by  being  brought 
to  England  become  free?  The  case  received  an  extraordinary 
amount  of  attention,  for  everybody  realized  that  the  decision 
would  be  far-reaching  in  its  consequences.  After  it  was  argued 
at  three  different  sittings,  Lord  Mansfield,  Chief  Justice  of 
England,  in  1772  handed  down  from  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench  the  judgment  that  as  soon  as  ever  any  slave  set  his 
foot  upon  the  soil  of  Erigland  he  became  free. 

This  decision  may  be  taken  as  fairly  representative  of 
the  general  advance  that  the  cause  of  the  Negro  was  making 
in  England  at  the  time.  Early  in  the  century  sentiment  against 
the  slave-trade  had  begun  to  develop,  many  pamphlets  on  the 
evils  of  slavery  were  circulated,  and  as  early  as  1776  a  motion 
for  the  abolition  of  the  trade  was  made  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  John  Wesley  preached  against  the  system,  Adam 
Smith  showed  its  ultimate  expensiveness,  and  Burke  declared 
that  the  slavery  endured  by  the  Negroes  in  the  English  settle- 
ments was  worse  than  that  ever  suffered  by  any  other  people. 
Foremost  in  the  work  of  protest  were  Thomas  Clarkson  and 
William  Wilberforce,  the  one  being  the  leader  in  investi- 
gation and  in  the  organization  of  the  movement  against  slavery 
while  the  other  was  the  parliamentary  champion  of  the  cause. 
For  years,  assisted  by  such  debaters  as  Burke,  Fox,  and  the 
younger  Pitt,  Wilberforce  worked  until  on  March  25,  1807, 
the  bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  received  the  royal 
assent,  and  still  later  until  slavery  itself  was  abolished  in  the 
English  dominions  (1833). 

This  high  thought  in  England  necessarily  found  some  reflec- 
tion in  America,  where  the  logic  of  the  position  of  the  patriots 
frequently  forced  them  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  slave.  As 
early  as  1751  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  his  Observations  con- 
cerning the  Increase  of  Mankind,  pointed  out  the  evil  effects  of 
slavery  upon  population  and  the  production  of  wealth ;  and  in 
1 761  James  Otis,  in  his  argument  against  the  Writs  of  Assist- 
ance, spoke  so  vigorously  of  the  rights  of  black  men  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  as  to  his  own  position.  To  Patrick  Henry 
slavery  was  a  practice  "totally  repugnant  to  the  first  impres- 


50       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

sions  of  right  and  wrong,"  and  in  1777  he  was  interested  in  a 
plan  for  gradual  emancipation  received  from  his  friend,  Robert 
Pleasants.  Washington  desired  nothing  more  than  "to  see 
some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery  might  be  abolished  by 
law";  while  Joel  Barlow  in  his  Columbiad  gave  significant 
warning  to  Columbia  of  the  ills  that  she  was  heaping  up  for 
herself. 

Two  of  the  expressions  of  sentiment  of  the  day,  by  reason 
of  their  deep  yearning  and  philosophic  calm,  somehow  stand 
apart  from  others.  Thomas  Jefferson  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia 
wrote:  "The  whole  commerce  between  master  and  slave  is  a 
perpetual  exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  passions;  the  most 
unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submis- 
sion on  the  other.  .  .  .  The  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can 
retain  his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such  circum- 
stances. ...  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God 
is  just;  that  his  justice  can  not  sleep  forever;  that  considering 
numbers,  nature,  and  natural  means  only,  a  revolution  of  the 
wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situation,  is  among  possi- 
ble events ;  that  it  may  become  probable  by  supernatural  inter- 
ference! The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can  take  side 
with  us  in  such  a  contest."  *  Henry  Laurens,  that  fine  patriot 
whose  business  sense  was  excelled  only  by  his  idealism,  was 
harassed  by  the  problem  and  wrote  to  his  son,  Colonel  John 
Laurens,  as  follows :  "You  know,  my  dear  son,  I  abhor  slavery. 
I  was  born  in  a  country  where  slavery  had  been  established 
by  British  kings  and  parliaments,  as  well  as  by  the  laws  of 
that  country  ages  before  my  existence.  I  found  the  Christian 
religion  and  slavery  growing  under  the  game  authority  and 
cultivation.  I  nevertheless  disliked  it.  In  former  days  there 
was  no  combating  the  prejudices  of  men  supported  by  interest; 
the  day  I  hope  is  approaching  when,  from  principles  of  grati- 
tude as  well  as  justice,  every  man  will  strive  to  be  foremost 
in  showing  his  readiness  to  comply  with  the  golden  rule.  Not 
less  than  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling  would  all  my 
Negroes  produce  if  sold  at  public  auction  to-morrow.     I  am 

*"The  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  issued  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Thomas  Jefferson  Memorial  Association,"  20  vols.,  Washington,  1903, 
II,  226-227. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  51 

not  the  man  who  enslaved  them ;  they  are  indebted  to  English- 
men for  that  favor;  nevertheless  I  am  devising  means  for 
manumitting  many  of  them,  and  for  cutting  off  the  entail  of 
slavery.  Great  powers  oppose  me — the  laws  and  customs  of 
my  country,  my  own  and  the  avarice  of  my  countrymen.  What 
will  my  children  say  if  I  deprive  them  of  so  much  estate? 
These  are  difficulties,  but  not  insuperable.  I  will  do  as  much 
as  I  can  in  my  time,  and  leave  the  rest  to  a  better  hand."  * 
Stronger  than  all  else,  however,  were  the  immortal  words  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence :  "We  hold  these  truths  to 
be  self-evident:  That  all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 
Within  the  years  to  come  these  words  were  to  be  denied  and 
assailed  as  perhaps  no  others  in  the  language;  but  in  spite  of 
all  they  were  to  stand  firm  and  justify  the  faith  of  1776  before 
Jefferson  himself  and  others  had  become  submerged  in  a  gilded 
opportunism. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  sentiments  were  by  any 
means  general ;  nevertheless  these  instances  alone  show  that 
some  men  at  least  in  the  colonies  were  willing  to  carry  their 
principles  to  their  logical  conclusion.  Naturally  opinion  crys- 
tallized in  formal  resolutions  or  enactments.  Unfortunately 
most  of  these  were  in  one  way  or  another  rendered  ineffectual 
after  the  war;  nevertheless  the  main  impulse  that  they  repre- 
sented continued  to  live.  In  1769  Virginia  declared  that  the 
discriminatory  tax  levied  on  free  Negroes  and  mulattoes  since 
1668  was  "derogatory  to  the  rights  of  freeborn  subjects"  and 
accordingly  should  be  repealed.  In  October,  1774,  the  First 
Continental  Congress  declared  in  its  Articles  of  Association 
that  the  united  colonies  would  "neither  import  nor  purchase 
any  slave  imported  after  the  first  day  of  December  next"  and 
that  they  would  "wholly  discontinue  the  trade."  On  April 
16,  1776,  the  Congress  further  resolved  that  "no  slaves  be 
imported  into  any  of  the  thirteen  colonies" ;  and  the  first  draft 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  contained  a  strong  passage 

*"A  South  Carolina  Protest  against  Slavery  (being  a  letter  written 
from  Henry  Laurens,  second  president  of  the  Continental  Congress,  to  his 
son,  Colonel  John  Laurens;  dated  Charleston,  S.  C,  August  14th,  1776)." 
Reprinted  by  G.  P.  Putnam,  New  York,  1861. 


•1 


52       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

censuring  the  King  of  England  for  bringing  slaves  into  the 
country  and  then  inciting  them  to  rise  against  their  masters. 
On  April  14,  1775,  the  first  abolition  society  in  the  country 
was  organized  in  Pennsylvania;  in  1778  Virginia  once  more 
passed  an  act  prohibiting  the  slave-trade;  and  the  Methodist 
Conference  in  Baltimore  in  1780  strongly  expressed  its  dis- 
approval of  slavery. 

2.     The  Negro  in  the  War 

As  in  all  the  greater  wars  in  which  the  country  has  engaged, 
the  position  of  the  Negro  was  generally  improved  by  the 
American  Revolution.  It  was  not  by  reason  of  any  definite 
plan  that  this  was  so,  for  in  general  the  disposition  of  the 
government  was  to  keep  him  out  of  the  conflict.  Nevertheless 
between  the  hesitating  policy  of  America  and  the  overtures 
of  England  the  Negro  made  considerable  advance. 

The  American  cause  in  truth  presented  a  strange  and  embar- 
rassing dilemma,  as  we  have  remarked.  In  the  war  itself, 
moreover,  began  the  stern  cleavage  between  the  North  and 
the  South.  At  the  moment  the  rift  was  not  clearly  discerned, 
but  afterwards  it  was  to  widen  into  a  chasm.  Massachusetts 
bore  more  than  her  share  of  the  struggle,  and  in  the  South 
the  combination  of  Tory  sentiment  and  the  aristocratic  social 
system  made  enlistment  especially  difficult.  In  this  latter 
section,  moreover,  there  was  always  the  lurking  fear  of  an 
uprising  of  the  slaves,  and  before  the  end  of  the  war  came 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  were  very  nearly  demoralized. 
In  the  course  of  the  conflict  South  Carolina  lost  not  less  than 
25,000  slaves,*  about  one-fifth  of  all  she  had.  Georgia  did 
not  lose  so  many,  but  proportionally  suffered  even  more.  Some 
of  the  Negroes  went  into  the  British  army,  some  went  away 
with  the  loyalists,  and  some  took  advantage  of  the  confusion 
and  escaped  to  the  Indians.  In  Virginia,  until  they  were 
stopped  at  least,  some  slaves  entered  the  Continental  Army 
as  free  Negroes. 

Three  or  four  facts  are  outstanding.     The   formal  policy 

*  Historical  Notes  on  the  Employment  of  Negroes  in  the  American 
Army  of  the  Revolution,  by  G.  H.  Moore,  New  York,  1862,  p.  15. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  53 

of  Congress  and  of  Washington  and  his  officers  was  against 
the  enlistment  of  Negroes  and  especially  of  slaves;  neverthe- 
less, while  things  were  still  uncertain,  some  Negroes  entered 
the  regular  units.  The  inducements  offered  by  the  English, 
moreover,  forced  a  modification  of  the  American  policy  in 
actual  operation;  and  before  the  war  was  over  the  colonists 
were  so  hard  pressed  that  in  more  ways  than  one  they  were 
willing  to  receive  the  assistance  of  Negroes.  Throughout  the 
North  Negroes  served  in  the  regular  units;  but  while  in  the 
South  especially  there  was  much  thought  given  to  the  train- 
ing of  slaves,  in  only  one  of  all  the  colonies  was  there  a  dis- 
tinctively Negro  military  organization,  and  that  one  was 
Rhode  Island.  In  general  it  was  understood  that  if  a  slave 
served  in  the  war  he  was  to  be  given  his  freedom,  and  it  is 
worthy  of  note  that  many  slaves  served  in  the  field  instead 
of  their  masters. 

In  Massachusetts  on  May  29,  1775,  the  Committee  of 
Safety  passed  an  act  against  the  enlistment  of  slaves  as  "incon- 
sistent with  the  principles  that  are  to  be  supported."  Another 
resolution  of  June  6  dealing  with  the  same  matter  was  laid 
on  the  table.  Washington  took  command  of  the  forces  in  and 
about  Boston  July  3,  1775,  and  on  July  10  issued  instructions 
to  the  recruiting  officers  in  Massachusetts  against  the  enlisting 
of  Negroes.  Toward  the  end  of  September  there  was  a 
spirited  debate  in  Congress  over  a  letter  to  go  to  Washington, 
the  Southern  delegates,  led  by  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina, 
endeavoring  to  force  instructions  to  the  commander-in-chief 
to  discharge  all  slaves  and  free  Negroes  in  the  army.  A  motion 
to  this  effect  failed  to  win  a  majority;  nevertheless,  a  council 
of  Washington  and  his  generals  on  October  8  "agreed  unani- 
mously to  reject  all  slaves,  and,  by  a  great  majority,  to  reject 
Negroes  altogether,"  and  in  his  general  orders  of  November  12 
Washington  acted  on  this  understanding.  Meanwhile,  how- 
ever, Lord  Dunmore  issued  his  proclamation  declaring  free 
those  indentured  servants  and  Negroes  who  would  join  the 
English  army,  and  in  great  numbers  the  slaves  in  Virginia 
flocked  to  the  British  standard.  Then  on  December  14 — some- 
what to  the  amusement  of  both  the  Negroes  and  the  English — 
the  Virginia  Convention  issued  a  proclamation  offering  pardon 


54      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

to  those  slaves  who  returned  to  their  duty  within  ten  days. 
On  December  30  Washington  gave  instructions  for  the  enlist- 
ment of  free  Negroes,  promising  later  to  lay  the  matter  before 
Congress;  and  a  congressional  committee  on  January  16,  1776, 
reported  that  those  free  Negroes  who  had  already  served 
faithfully  in  the  army  at  Cambridge  might  reenlist  but  no 
others,  the  debate  in  this  connection  having  drawn  very  sharply 
the  line  between  the  North  and  the  South.  Henceforth  for  all 
practical  purposes  the  matter  was  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
individual  colonies.  Massachusetts  on  January  6,  1777,  passed 
a  resolution  drafting  every  seventh  man  to  complete  her  quota 
"without  any  exception,  save  the  people  called  Quakers,"  and 
this  was  as  near  as  she  came  at  any  time  in  the  war  to  the 
formal  recognition  of  the  Negro.  The  Rhode  Island  Assembly 
in  1778  resolved  to  raise  a  regiment  of  slaves,  who  were  to  be 
freed  at  enlistment,  their  owners  in  no  case  being  paid  more 
than  £120.  In  the  Battle  of  Rhode  Island  August  29,  1778, 
the  Negro  regiment  under  Colonel  Greene  distinguished  itself 
by  deeds  of  desperate  valor,  repelling  three  times  the  assaults 
of  an  overwhelming  force  of  Hessian  troops.  A  little  later, 
when  Greene  was  about  to  be  murdered,  some  of  these  same 
soldiers  had  to  be  cut  to  pieces  before  he  could  be  secured. 
Maryland  employed  Negroes  as  soldiers  and  sent  them  into 
regiments  along  with  white  men,  and  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  at  the  time  the  Negro  population  of  Maryland  was 
exceeded  only  by  that  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina.  For 
the  far  South  there  was  the  famous  Laurens  plan  for  the  rais- 
ing of  Negro  regiments. 

In  a  letter  to  Washington  of  March  16,  1779,  Henry  Lau- 
rens suggested  the  raising  and  training  of  three  thousand 
Negroes  in  South  Carolina.  Washington  was  rather  con- 
servative about  the  plan,  having  in  mind  the  ever-present 
fear  of  the  arming  of  Negroes  and  wondering  about  the  effect 
on  those  slaves  who  were  not  given  a  chance  for  freedom. 
On  June  30,  1779,  however,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  issued  a 
proclamation  only  less  far-reaching  than  Dunmore's,  threaten- 
ing Negroes  if  they  joined  the  "rebel"  army  and  offering  them 
security  if  they  came  within  the  British  lines.  This  was  effec- 
tive; assistance  of  any  kind  that  the  Continental  Army  could 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  55 

now  get  was  acceptable ;  and  the  plan  for  the  raising  of  several 
battalions  of  Negroes  in  the  South  was  entrusted  to  Colonel 
John  Laurens,  a  member  of  Washington's  staff.  In  his  own 
way  Colonel  Laurens  was  a  man  of  parts  quite  as  well  as 
his  father;  he  was  thoroughly  devoted  to  the  American  cause 
and  Washington  said  of  him  that  his  only  fault  was  a  courage 
that  bordered  on  rashness.  He  eagerly  pursued  his  favorite 
project;  able-bodied  slaves  were  to  be  paid  for  by  Congress 
at  the  rate  of  $1,000  each,  and  one  who  served  to  the  end  of 
the  war  was  to  receive  his  freedom  and  $50  in  addition.  In 
South  Carolina,  however,  Laurens  received  little  encourage- 
ment, and  in  1780  he  was  called  upon  to  go  to  France  on  a 
patriotic  mission.  He  had  not  forgotten  the  matter  when  he 
returned  in  1782;  but  by  that  time  Cornwallis  had  surrendered 
and  the  country  had  entered  upon  the  critical  period  of  adjust- 
ment to  the  new  conditions.  Washington  now  wrote  to  Lau- 
rens :  "I  must  confess  that  I  am  not  at  all  astonished  at  the 
failure  of  your  plan.  That  spirit  of  freedom  which,  at  the 
commencement  of  this  contest,  would  have  gladly  sacrificed 
everything  to  the  attainment  of  its  object,  has  long  since  sub- 
sided, and  every  selfish  passion  has  taken  its  place.  It  is  not 
the  public  but  private  interest  which  influences  the  generality 
of  mankind ;  nor  can  the  Americans  any  longer  boast  an  excep- 
tion. Under  these  circumstances,  it  would  rather  have  been 
surprising  if  you  had  succeeded;  nor  will  you,  I  fear,  have 
better  success  in  Georgia."  * 

From  this  brief  survey  we  may  at  least  see  something  of 
the  anomalous  position  occupied  by  the  Negro  in  the  American 
Revolution.  Altogether  not  less  than  three  thousand,  and 
probably  more,  members  of  the  race  served  in  the  Continental 
army.  At  the  close  of  the  conflict  New  York,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Virginia  freed  their  slave  soldiers.  In  general,  however, 
the  system  of  slavery  was  not  affected,  and  the  English  were 
bound  by  the  treaty  of  peace  not  to  carry  away  any  Negroes. 
As  late  as  1786,  it  is  nevertheless  interesting  to  note,  a  band 
of  Negroes  calling  themselves  "The  King  of  England's  sol- 
diers" harassed  and  alarmed  the  people  on  both  sides  of  the 
Savannah  River. 

*  Sparks's  Washington,  VIII,  322-323. 


56      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Slavery  remained;  but  people  could  not  forget  the  valor 
of  the  Negro  regiment  in  Rhode  Island,  or  the  courage  of 
individual  soldiers.  They  could  not  forget  that  it  was  a 
Negro,  Crispus  Attucks,  who  had  been  the  patriot  leader  in 
the  Boston  Massacre,  or  the  scene  when  he  and  one  of  his 
companions,  Jonas  Caldwell,  lay  in  Faneuil  Hall.  Those  who 
were  at  Bunker  Hill  could  not  fail  to  remember  Peter  Salem, 
who,  when  Major  Pitcairn  of  the  British  army  was  exulting 
in  his  expected  triumph,  rushed  forward,  shot  him  in  the 
breast,  and  killed  him ;  or  Samuel  Poor,  whose  officers  testified 
that  he  performed  so  many  brave  deeds  that  "to  set  forth 
particulars  of  his  conduct  would  be  tedious."  These  and  many 
more,  some  with  very  humble  names,  in  a  dark  day  worked 
for  a  better  country.  They  died  in  faith,  not  having  received 
the  promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off. 

3.     The  Northwest  Territory  and  the  Constitution 

The  materialism  and  selfishness  which  rose  in  the  course 
of  the  war  to  oppose  the  liberal  tendencies  of  the  period,  and 
which  Washington  felt  did  so  much  to  embarrass  the  govern- 
ment, became  pronounced  in  the  debates  on  the  Northwest 
Territory  and  the  Constitution.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  the  region  west  of  Pennsylvania,  east  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  south  of 
Canada,  was  claimed  by  Virginia,  New  York,  Connecticut,  and 
Massachusetts.  This  territory  afforded  to  these  states  a  source 
of  revenue  not  possessed  by  the  others  for  the  payment  of  debts 
incurred  in  the  war,  and  Maryland  and  other  seaboard  states 
insisted  that  in  order  to  equalize  matters  these  claimants  should 
cede  their  rights  to  the  general  government.  The  formal 
cessions  were  made  and  accepted  in  the  years  1782-6.  In 
April,  1784,  after  Virginia  had  made  her  cession,  the  most 
important,  Congress  adopted  a  temporary  form  of  government 
drawn  up  by  Thomas  Jefferson  for  the  territory  south  as  well 
as  north  of  the  Ohio  River.  Jefferson's  most  significant  pro- 
vision, however,  was  rejected.  This  declared  that  "after  the 
year  1800  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servi- 
tude in  any  of  the  said  states  other  than  in  the  punishment 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  57 

of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted 
to  have  been  personally  guilty."  This  early  ordinance,  although 
it  did  not  go  into  effect,  is  interesting  as  an  attempt  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the  great  West  that  was  beginning  to  be  opened 
up.  On  March  3,  1786,  moreover,  the  Ohio  Company  was 
formed  in  Boston  by  a  group  of  New  England  business  men 
for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  land  in  the  West  and  promoting 
settlement;  and  early  in  June,  1787,  Dr.  Manasseh  Cutler,  one 
of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  company,  appeared  in  New  York, 
where  the  last  Continental  Congress  was  sitting,  for  the  con- 
crete purpose  of  buying  land.  He  doubtless  did  much  to  hasten 
action  by  Congress,  and  on  July  13  was  passed  "An  Ordinance 
for  the  Government  of  the  Territory  of  the  United  States, 
Northwest  of  the  Ohio,"  the  Southern  states  not  having  ceded 
the  area  south  of  the  river.  It  was  declared  that  "There 
shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said 
territory,  otherwise  than  in  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof 
the  parties  shall  be  duly  convicted."  To  this  was  added  the 
stipulation  (soon  afterwards  embodied  in  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution) for  the  return  of  any  person  escaping  into  the  terri- 
tory from  whom  labor  or  service  was  "lawfully  claimed  in 
any  one  of  the  original  states."  In  this  shape  the  ordinance 
was  adopted,  even  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  concurring; 
and  thus  was  paved  the  way  for  the  first  fugitive  slave  law. 
Slavery,  already  looming  up  as  a  dominating  issue,  was 
the  cause  of  two  of  the  three  great  compromises  that  entered 
into  the  making  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  (the 
third,  which  was  the  first  made,  being  the  concession  to  the 
smaller  states  of  equal  representation  in  the  Senate).  These 
were  the  first  but  not  the  last  of  the  compromises  that  were 
to  mark  the  history  of  the  subject;  and,  as  some  clear-headed 
men  of  the  time  perceived,  it  would  have  been  better  and 
cheaper  to  settle  the  question  at  once  on  the  high  plane  o£ 
right  rather  than  to  leave  it  indefinitely  to  the  future.  South 
Carolina,  however,  with  able  representation,  largely  controlled 
the  thought  of  the  convention,  and  she  and  Georgia  made  the 
most  extreme  demands,  threatening  not  to  accept  the  Consti- 
tution if  there  was  not  compliance  with  them.  An  important 
question  was  that  of  representation,  the  Southern  states  advo- 


58       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

eating  representation  according  to  numbers,  slave  and  free, 
while  the  Northern  states  were  in  favor  of  the  representation 
of  free  persons  only.  Williamson  of  North  Carolina  advo- 
cated the  counting  of  three-fifths  of  the  slaves,  but  this  motion 
was  at  first  defeated,  and  there  was  little  real  progress  until 
Gouverneur  Morris  suggested  that  representation  be  accord- 
ing to  the  principle  of  wealth.  Mason  of  Virginia  pointed  out 
practical  difficulties  which  caused  the  resolution  to  be  made 
to  apply  to  direct  taxation  only,  and  in  this  form  it  began  to 
be  generally  acceptable.  By  this  time,  however,  the  deeper 
feelings  of  the  delegates  on  the  subject  of  slavery  had  been 
stirred,  and  they  began  to  speak  plainly.  Davie  of  North  Caro- 
lina declared  that  his  state  would  never  enter  the  Union  on  any 
terms  that  did  not  provide  for  counting  at  least  three-fifths  of 
the  slaves  and  that  "if  the  Eastern  states  meant  to  exclude 
them  altogether  the  business  was  at  an  end."  It  was  finally 
agreed  to  reckon  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  in  estimating  taxes 
and  to  make  taxation  the  basis  of  representation.  The  whole 
discussion  was  renewed,  however,  in  connection  with  the  ques- 
tion of  importation.  There  were  more  threats  from  the  far 
South,  and  some  of  the  men  from  New  England,  prompted 
by  commercial  interest,  even  if  they  did  not  favor  the  senti- 
ments expressed,  were  at  least  disposed  to  give  them  passive 
acquiescence.  From  Maryland  and  Virginia,  however,  came 
earnest  protest.  Luther  Martin  declared  unqualifiedly  that  to 
have  a  clause  in  the  Constitution  permitting  the  importation  of 
slaves  was  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  the  Revolution 
and  dishonorable  to  the  American  character,  and  George  Mason 
could  foresee  only  a  future  in  which  a  just  Providence  would 
punish  such  a  national  sin  as  slavery  by  national  calamities. 
Such  utterances  were  not  to  dominate  the  convention,  how- 
ever; it  was  a  day  of  expediency,  not  of  morality.  A  bargain 
was  made  between  the  commercial  interests  of  the  North  and 
the  slave-holding  interests  of  the  South,  the  granting  to  Con- 
gress of  unrestricted  power  to  enact  navigation  laws  being 
conceded  in  exchange  for  twenty  years'  continuance  of  the 
slave-trade.  The  main  agreements  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
were  thus  finally  expressed  in  the  Constitution:  "Representa- 
tives and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  several 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  59 

states  which  may  be  included  within  this  Union,  according 
to  their  respective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined  by  add- 
ing to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  including  those  bound 
to  servitude  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  not 
taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons"  (Art.  I,  Sec.  2) ;  "The 
migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  states 
now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  shall  not  be  pro- 
hibited by  the  congress  prior  to  the  year  1808;  but  a  tax  or 
duty  may  be  imposed,  not  exceeding  ten  dollars  on  each  person" 
(Art.  I,  Sec.  9) ;  "No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one 
state,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in 
consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim 
of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due"  (Art. 
IV,  Sec.  2).  With  such  provisions,  though  without  the  use 
of  the  question-begging  word  slaves,  the  institution  of  human 
bondage  received  formal  recognition  in  the  organic  law  of 
the  new  republic  of  the  United  States. 

"Just  what  is  the  light  in  which  we  are  to  regard  the 
slaves?"  wondered  James  Wilson  in  the  course  of  the  debate. 
"Are  they  admitted  as  citizens?"  he  asked;  "then  why  are 
they  not  admitted  on  an  equality  with  white  citizens  ?  Are  they 
admitted  as  property?  then  why  is  not  other  property  admitted 
into  the  computation?"  Such  questions  and  others  to  which 
they  gave  rise  were  to  trouble  more  heads  than  his  in  the 
course  of  the  coming  years,  and  all  because  a  great  nation  did 
not  have  the  courage  to  do  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time. 

4.     Early  Steps  toward  Abolition 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  power  crystallized  in  the  Consti- 
tution, the  moral  movement  that  had  set  in  against  slavery 
still  held  its  ground,  and  it  was  destined  never  wholly  to  lan- 
guish until  slavery  ceased  altogether  to  exist  in  the  United  - 
States.  Throughout  the  century  the  Quakers  continued  thehr^j 
good  work;  in  the  generation  before  the  war  John  Woolman 
of  New  Jersey  traveled  in  the  Southern  colonies  preaching 
that  "the  practice  of  continuing  slavery  is  not  right" ;  and 
Anthony  Benezet  opened  in  Philadelphia  a  school  for  Negroes 


60      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

which  he  himself  taught  without  remuneration,  and  otherwise 
influenced  Pennsylvania  to  begin  the  work  of  emancipation. 
In  general  the  Quakers  conducted  their  campaign  along  the 
lines  on  which  they  were  most  likely  to  succeed,  attacking  the 
slave-trade  first  of  all  but  more  and  more  making  an  appeal 
to  the  central  government;  and  the  first  Abolition  Society, 
organized  in  Pennsylvania  in  1775  and  consisting  mainly  of 
Quakers,  had  for  its  original  object  merely  the  relief  of  free 
Negroes  unlawfully  held  in  bondage.*  The  organization  was 
forced  to  suspend  its  work  in  the  course  of  the  war,  but  in 
1784  it  renewed  its  meetings,  and  men  of  other  denominations 
than  the  Quakers  now  joined  in  greater  numbers.  In  1787 
the  society  was  formally  reorganized  as  "The  Pennsylvania 
Society  for  Promoting  the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  the  Relief  of 
Free  Negroes  unlawfully  held  in  Bondage,  and  for  Improving 
the  Condition  of  the  African  Race."  Benjamin  Franklin  was 
elected  president  and  there  was  adopted  a  constitution  which 
was  more  and  more  to  serve  as  a  model  for  similar  societies 
in  the  neighboring  states. 

g  Four  years  later,  by  1791,  there  were  in  the  country  as 
r  many  as  twelve  abolition  societies,  and  these  represented  all 
the  states  from  Massachusetts  to  Virginia,  with  the  exception 
of  New  Jersey,  where  a  society  was  formed  the  following 
year.  That  of  New  York,  formed  in  1785  with  John  Jay 
as  president,  took  the  name  of  the  Manumission  Society,  limit- 
ing its  aims  at  first  to  promoting  manumission  and  protecting 
those  Negroes  who  had  already  been  set  free.  All  of  the 
societies  had  very  clear  ideas  as  to  their  mission.  The  preva- 
lence of  kidnaping  made  them  emphasize  "the  relief  of  free 
Negroes  unlawfully  held  in  bondage,"  and  in  general  each 
one  in  addition  to  its  executive  committee  had  committees  for 
inspection,-  advice,  and  protection ;  for  the  guardianship  of  chil- 
dren; for  the  superintending  of  education,  and  for  employ- 
ment. While  the  societies  were  originally  formed  to  attend 
to  local  matters,  their  efforts  naturally  extended  in  course 
of  time  to  national  affairs,  and  on  December  8,  1791,  nine  of 
them  prepared  petitions  to  Congress  for  the  limitation  of  the 

*  Locke :  Anti-Slavery  in  America,  97. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  61 

slave-trade.  These  petitions  were  referred  to  a  special  com- 
mittee and  nothing  more  was  heard  of  them  at  the  time.  After 
two  years  accordingly  the  organizations  decided  that  a 
more  vigorous  plan  of  action  was  necessary,  and  on  January 
i,  1794,  delegates  from  nine  societies  organized  in  Philadel- 
phia the  American  Convention  of  Abolition  Societies.  The 
object  of  the  Convention  was  twofold,  "to  increase  the  zeal 
and  efficiency  of  the  individual  societies  by  its  advice  and 
encouragement  .  .  .  and  to  take  upon  itself  the  chief  responsi- 
bility in  regard  to  national  affairs."  It  prepared  an  address 
to  the  country  and  presented  to  Congress  a  memorial  against 
the  fitting  out  of  vessels  in  the  United  States  to  engage  in  the 
slave-trade,  and  it  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Congress  in 
the  same  year  pass  a  bill  to  this  effect. 

Some  of  the  organizations  were  very  active  and  one  as  far 
South  as  that  in  Maryland  was  at  first  very  powerful.  Always 
were  they  interested  in  suits  in  courts  of  law.  In  1797  the 
New  York  Society  reported  90  complaints,  36  persons  freed, 
21  cases  still  in  suit,  and  19  under  consideration.  The  Penn- 
sylvania Society  reported  simply  that  it  had  been  instrumental 
in  the  liberation  of  "many  hundreds"  of  persons.  The  dif- 
ferent branches,  however,  did  not  rest  with  mere  liberation; 
they  endeavored  generally  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
Negroes  in  their  respective  communities,  each  one  being  expect- 
ed to  report  to  the  Convention  on  the  number  of  freedmen  in 
its  state  and  on  their  property,  employment,  and  conduct. 
From  time  to  time  also  the  Convention  prepared  addresses  to 
these  people,  and  something  of  the  spirit  of  its  work  and  also 
of  the  social  condition  of  the  Negro  at  the  time  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  address  of  1796: 

To  the  Free  Africans  and  Other  Free  People  of  Color  in  the 
United  States. 

The  Convention  of  Deputies  from  the  Abolition  Societies  in  the 
United  States,  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  have  undertaken  to  address 
you  upon  subjects  highly  interesting  to  your  prosperity. 

They  wish  to  see  you  act  worthily  of  the  rank  you  have  acquired 
as  freemen,  and  thereby  to  do  credit  to  yourselves,  and  to  justify  the 
friends  and  advocates  of  your  color  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 


62      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

As  the  result  of  our  united  reflections,  we  have  concluded  to  call 
your  attention  to  the  following  articles  of  advice.  We  trust  they  are 
dictated  by  the  purest  regard  for  your  welfare,  for  we  view  you  as 
Friends  and  Brethren. 

In  the  first  place,  We  earnestly  recommend  to  you,  a  regular  atten- 
tion to  the  important  duty  of  public  worship;  by  which  means  you 
will  evince  gratitude  to  your  Creator,  and,  at  the  same  time,  promote 
knowledge,  union,  friendship,  and  proper  conduct  among  yourselves. 

Secondly,  We  advise  such  of  you,  as  have  not  been  taught  read- 
ing, writing,  and  the  first  principles  of  arithmetic,  to  acquire  them 
as  early  as  possible.  Carefully  attend  to  the  instruction  of  your  chil- 
dren in  the  same  simple  and  useful  branches  of  education.  Cause 
them,  likewise,  early  and  frequently  to  read  the  holy  Scriptures; 
these  contain,  amongst  other  great  discoveries,  the  precious  record  of 
the  original  equality  of  mankind,  and  of  the  obligations  of  universal 
justice  and  benevolence,  which  are  derived  from  the  relation  of  the 
human  race  to  each  other  in  a  common  Father. 

Thirdly,  Teach  your  children  useful  trades,  or  to  labor  with  their 
hands  in  cultivating  the  earth.  These  employments  are  favorable  to 
health  and  virtue.  In  the  choice  of  masters,  who  are  to  instruct  them 
in  the  above  branches  of  business,  prefer  those  who  will  work  with 
them;  by  this  means  they  will  acquire  habits  of  industry,  and  be  bet- 
ter preserved  from  vice  than  if  they  worked  alone,  or  under  the  eye 
of  persons  less  interested  in  their  welfare.  In  forming  contracts, 
for  yourselves  or  children,  with  masters,  it  may  be  useful  to  consult 
such  persons  as  are  capable  of  giving  you  the  best  advice,  and  who 
are  known  to  be  your  friends,  in  order  to  prevent  advantages  being 
taken  of  your  ignorance  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  our  country. 

Fourthly,  Be  diligent  in  your  respective  callings,  and  faithful  in 
all  the  relations  you  bear  in  society,  whether  as  husbands,  wives, 
fathers,  children  or  hired  servants.  Be  just  in  all  your  dealings.  Be 
simple  in  your  dress  and  furniture,  and  frugal  in  your  family  ex- 
penses. Thus  you  will  act  like  Christians  as  well  as  freemen,  and, 
by  these  means,  you  will  provide  for  the  distresses  and  wants  of 
sickness  and  old  age. 

Fifthly,  Refrain  from  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors ;  the  experience 
of  many  thousands  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  has  proved 
that  these  liquors  are  not  necessary  to  lessen  the  fatigue  of  labor, 
nor  to  obviate  the  effects  of  heat  or  cold ;  nor  can  they,  in  any  degree, 
add  to  the  innocent  pleasures  of  society. 

Sixthly,  Avoid  frolicking,  and  amusements  which  lead  to  expense 
and  idleness;  they  beget  habits  of  dissipation  and  vice,  and  thus 
expose  you  to  deserved  reproach  amongst  your  white  neighbors. 

Seventhly,  We  wish  to  impress  upon  your  minds  the  moral  and 
religious  necessity  of  having  your  marriages  legally  performed;  also 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  63 

to  have  exact  registers  preserved  of  all  the  births  and  deaths  which 
occur  in  your  respective  families. 

Eighthly,  Endeavor  to  lay  up  as  much  as  possible  of  your  earnings 
for  the  benefit  of  your  children,  in  case  you  should  die  before  they 
are  able  to  maintain  themselves — your  money  will  be  safest  and  most 
beneficial  when  laid  out  in  lots,  houses,  or  small  farms. 

Ninthly,  We  recommend  to  you,  at  all  times  and  upon  all  occa- 
sions, to  behave  yourselves  to  all  persons  in  a  civil  and  respectful 
manner,  by  which  you  may  prevent  contention  and  remove  every 
just  occasion  of  complaint.  We  beseech  you  to  reflect,  that  it  is  by 
your  good  conduct  alone  that  you  can  refute  the  objections  which 
have  been  made  against  you  as  rational  and  moral  creatures,  and 
remove  many  of  the  difficulties  which  have  occurred  in  the  general 
emancipation  of  such  of  your  brethren  as  are  yet  in  bondage. 

With  hearts  anxious  for  your  welfare,  we  commend  you  to  the 
guidance  and  protection  of  that  Being  who  is  able  to  keep  you  from 
all  evil,  and  who  is  the  common  Father  and  Friend  of  the  whole 
family  of  mankind. 

By  order,  and  in  behalf,  of  the  Convention, 

Theodore  Foster,  President. 

Philadelphia,  January  6th,  1796. 
Thomas  P.  Cope,  Secretary. 


The  general  impulse  for  liberty  which  prompted  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  early  Abolition  societies  naturally  found  some 
reflection  in  formal  legislation.  The  declarations  of  the  central 
government  under  the  Confederation  were  not  very  effective, 
and  for  more  definite  enactments  we  have  to  turn  to  the 
individual  states.  The  honor  of  being  the  first  actually  to 
prohibit  and  abolish  slavery  really  belongs  to  Vermont,  whose 
constitution,  adopted  in  1777,  even  before  she  had  come  into 
the  Union,  declared  very  positively  against  the  system.  In 
1782  the  old  Virginia  statute  forbidding  emancipation  except 
for  meritorious  services  was  repealed.  The  repeal  was  in 
force  ten  years,  and  in  this  time  manumissions  were  numerous. 
Maryland  soon  afterwards  passed  acts  similar  to  those  in 
Virginia  prohibiting  the  further  introduction  of  slaves  and 
removing  restraints  on  emancipation,  and  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  also  prohibited  the  further  introduction  of  slaves 
from  Africa  or  from  other  states.  In  1780,  in  spite  of  con- 
siderable opposition  because  of  the  course  of  the  war,  the  Penn- 


64      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

sylvania  Assembly  passed  an  act  forbidding  the  further  intro- 
duction of  slaves  and  giving  freedom  to  all  persons  thereafter 
born  in  the  state.  Similar  provisions  were  enacted  in  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island  in  1784.  Meanwhile  Massachusetts 
was  much  agitated,  and  beginning  in  1766  there  were  before 
the  courts  several  cases  in  which  Negroes  sued  for  their  free- 
dom.* Their  general  argument  was  that  the  royal  charter 
declared  that  all  persons  residing  in  the  province  were  to  be  as 
free  as  the  king's  subjects  in  Great  Britain,  that  by  Magna 
Carta  no  subject  could  be  deprived  of  liberty  except  by  the 
judgment  of  his  peers,  and  that  any  laws  that  may  have  been 
passed  in  the  province  to  mitigate  or  regulate  the  evil  of 
slavery  did  not  authorize  it.  Sometimes  the  decisions  were 
favorable,  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  Massachu- 
setts still  recognized  the  system  by  the  decision  that  no  slave 
could  be  enlisted  in  the  army.  In  1777,  however,  some  slaves 
brought  from  Jamaica  were  ordered  to  be  set  at  liberty,  and 
it  was  finally  decided  in  1783  that  the  declaration  in  the 
Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights  to  the  effect  that  "all  men  are 
born  free  and  equal"  prohibited  slavery.  In  this  same  year 
New  Hampshire  incorporated  in  her  constitution  a  prohibitive 
article.  By  the  time  the  convention  for  the  framing  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  met  in  Philadelphia  in  1787, 
two  of  the  original  thirteen  states  (Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire)  had  positively  prohibited  slavery,  and  in  three 
others  (Pennsylvania,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island)  gradual 
abolition  was  in  progress. 

The  next  decade  was  largely  one  of  the  settlement  of  new 
territory,  and  by  its  close  the  pendulum  seemed  to  have  swung 
decidedly  backward.  In  1799,  however,  after  much  effort  and 
debating,  New  York  at  last  declared  for  gradual  abolition,  and 
New  Jersey  did  likewise  in  1804.  In  general,  gradual  emanci- 
pation was  the  result  of  the  work  of  people  who  were  humane 
but  also  conservative  and  who  questioned  the  wisdom  of  thrust- 
ing upon  the  social  organism  a  large  number  of  Negroes  sud- 
denly emancipated.     Sometimes,  however,  a  gradual  emanci- 

*  See  Williams :  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America,  I,  228- 
236. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  65 

pation  act  was  later  followed  by  one  for  immediate  manu- 
mission, as  in  New  York  in  181 7.  At  first  those  who  favored 
gradual  emancipation  were  numerous  in  the  South  as  well  as 
in  the  North,  but  in  general  after  Gabriel's  insurrection  in 
1800,  though  some  individuals  were  still  outstanding,  the 
South  was  quiescent.  The  character  of  the  acts  that  were 
really  put  in  force  can  hardly  be  better  stated  than  has  already 
been  done  by  the  specialist  in  the  subject.*     We  read: 

Gradual  emancipation  is  defined  as  the  extinction  of  slavery  by 
depriving  it  of  its  hereditary  quality.  In  distinction  from  the  clauses 
in  the  constitutions  of  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire, 
which  directly  or  indirectly  affected  the  condition  of  slavery  as  al- 
ready existing,  the  gradual  emancipation  acts  left  this  condition 
unchanged  and  affected  only  the  children  born  after  the  passage  of 
the  act  or  after  a  fixed  date.  Most  of  these  acts  followed  that  of 
Pennsylvania  in  providing  that  the  children  of  a  slave  mother  should 
remain  with  her  owner  as  servants  until  they  reached  a  certain  age, 
of  from  twenty-one  to  twenty-eight  years,  as  stated  in  the  various 
enactments.  In  Pennsylvania,  however,  they  were  to  be  regarded 
as  free.  In  Connecticut,  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  to  be  "held  in 
servitude"  until  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  after  that  to  be  free. 
The  most  liberal  policy  was  that  of  Rhode  Island,  where  the  children 
were  pronounced  free  but  were  to  be  supported  by  the  town  and  edu- 
cated in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  morality  and  religion.  The 
latter  clauses,  however,  were  repealed  the  following  year,  leaving 
the  children  to  be  supported  by  the  owner  of  the  mother  until  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  and  only  if  he  abandoned  his  claims  to  the  mother 
to  become  a  charge  to  the  town.  In  New  York  and  New  Jersey  they 
were  to  remain  as  servants  until  a  certain  age,  but  were  regarded  as 
free,  and  liberal  opportunities  were  given  the  master  for  the  aban- 
donment of  his  claims,  the  children  in  such  cases  to  be  supported  at 
the  common  charge.  .  .  .  The  manumission  and  emancipation  acts 
were  naturally  followed,  as  in  the  case  of  the  constitutional  provision 
in  Vermont,  by  the  attempts  of  some  of  the  slave-owners  to  dispose 
of  their  property  outside  the  State.  Amendments  to  the  laws  were 
found  necessary,  and  the  Abolition  Societies  found  plenty  of  occa- 
sion for  their  exertions  in  protecting  free  blacks  from  seizure  and 
illegal  sale  and  in  looking  after  the  execution  and  amendment  of  the 
laws.  The  process  of  gradual  emancipation  was  also  unsatisfactory 
on  account  of  the  length  of  time  it  would  require,  and  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Connecticut  attempts  were  made  to  obtain  acts  for  imme- 
diate emancipation. 

*  Locke,  124-126. 


66      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 
5.     Beginning  of  Racial  Consciousness 

Of  supreme  importance  in  this  momentous  period,  more  im- 
portant perhaps  in  its  ultimate  effect  than  even  the  work  of 
the  Abolition  Societies,  was  what  the  Negro  was  doing  for 

1  \  himself.     In  the  era  of  the  Revolution  began  that  racial  con- 
;  sciousness  on  which  almost  all  later  effort  for  social  better- 

I  I  ment  has  been  based. 

By  1700  the  only  cooperative  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Negro 
was  such  as  that  in  the  isolated  society  to  which  Cotton  Mather 
gave  rules,  or  in  a  spasmodic  insurrection,  or  a  rather  crude 
development  of  native  African  worship.  As  yet  there  was 
no  genuine  basis  of  racial  self-respect.  In  one  way  or  an- 
other, however,  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  idea  of  associa- 
tion developed,  and  especially  in  Boston  about  the  time  of  the 

.^Revolution  Negroes  began  definitely  to  work  together;  thus 
they  assisted  individuals  in  test  cases  in  the  courts,  and  when 
James  Swan  in  his  Dissuasion  from  the  Slave  Trade  made 
such  a  statement  as  that  "no  country  can  be  called  free  where 
there  is  one  slave,"  it  was  "at  the  earnest  desire  of  the  Negroes 
in  Boston"  that  the  revised  edition  of  the  pamphlet  was  pub- 
lished. 

J.  n  From  the  very  beginning  the  Christian  Church  was  the  race's 
foremost  form  of  social  organization.  It  was  but  natural  that 
the  first  distinctively  Negro  churches  should  belong  to  the 
democratic  Baptist  denomination.  There  has  been  much  dis- 
cussion as  to  which  was  the  very  first  Negro  Baptist  church, 
and  good  claims  have  been  put  forth  by  the  Harrison  Street 
Baptist  Church  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  and  for  a  church  in 
Williamsburg,  Va.,  organization  in  each  case  going  back  to 
1776.  A  student  of  the  subject,  however,  has  shown  that  there 
was  a  Negro  Baptist  church  at  Silver  Bluff,  "on  the  South 
Carolina  side  of  the  Savannah  River,  in  Aiken  County,  just 
twelve  miles  from  Augusta,  Ga.,"  founded  not  earlier  than 
1773,  not  later  than  1775.*  In  any  case  special  interest  at- 
taches to  the  First  Bryan  Baptist  Church,  of  Savannah, 
founded  in  January,  1788.  The  origin  of  this  body  goes  back 
*  Walter  H.  Brooks :    The  Silver  Bluff  Church. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  67 

to  George  Liele,  a  Negro  born  in  Virginia,  who  might  justly- 
lay  claim  to  being  America's  first  foreign  missionary.  Con- 
verted by  a  Georgia  Baptist  minister,  he  was  licensed  as  a 
probationer  and  was  known  to  preach  soon  afterwards  at  a 
white  quarterly  meeting.*  In  1783  he  preached  in  the  vicinity 
of  Savannah,  and  one  of  those  who  came  to  hear  him  was 
Andrew  Bryan,  a  slave  of  Jonathan  Bryan.  Liele  then  went 
to  Jamaica  and  in  1784  began  to  preach  in  Kingston,  where 
with  four  brethren  from  America  he  formed  a  church.  At 
first  he  was  subjected  to  persecution;  nevertheless  by  1791 
he  had  baptized  over  four  hundred  persons.  Eight  or  nine 
months  after  he  left  for  Jamaica,  Andrew  Bryan  began  to 
preach,  and  at  first  he  was  permitted  to  use  a  building  at 
Yamaeraw,  in  the  suburbs  of  Savannah.  Of  this,  however, 
he  was  in  course  of  time  dispossessed,  the  place  being  a 
rendezvous  for  those  Negroes  who  had  been  taken  away  from 
their  homes  by  the  British.  Many  of  these  men  were  taken 
before  the  magistrates  from  time  to  time,  and  some  were 
whipped  and  others  imprisoned.  Bryan  himself,  having  in- 
curred the  ire  of  the  authorities,  was  twice  imprisoned  and 
once  publicly  whipped,  being  so  cut  that  he  "bled  abundantly" ; 
but  he  told  his  persecutors  that  he  "would  freely  suffer  death 
for  the  cause  of  Jesus  Christ/'  and  after  a  while  he  was  per- 
mitted to  go  on  with  his  work.  For  some  time  he  used  a 
barn,  being  assisted  by  his  brother  Sampson ;  then  for  £50  he 
purchased  his  freedom,  and  afterwards  he  began  to  use  for 
worship  a  house  that  Sampson  had  been  permitted  to  erect. 
By  1 791  his  church  had  two  hundred  members,  but  over  a 
hundred  more  had  been  received  as  converted  members  though 
they  had  not  won  their  masters'  permission  to  be  baptized.  An 
interesting  sidelight  on  these  people  is  furnished  by  the  state- 
ment that  probably  fifty  of  them  could  read  though  only  three 
could  write.  Years  afterwards,  in  1832,  when  the  church 
had  grown  to  great  numbers,  a  large  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion left  the  Bryan  Church  and  formed  what  is  now  the  First  v 
African  Baptist  Church  of  Savannah.  Both  congregations, 
however,  remembered  their  early  leader  as  one  "clear  in  the 

*  See  letters  in  Journal  of  Negro  History,  January,  1916,  69-97. 


68      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

grand  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  truly  pious,  and  the  instrument 
of  doing  more  good  among  the  poor  slaves  than  all  the  learned 
doctors  in  America." 

While  Bryan  was  working  in  Savannah,  in  Richmond,  Va., 

^-rose  Lott  Cary,  a  man  of  massive  and  erect  frame  and  of 
great  personality.  Born  a  slave  in  1780,  Cary  worked  for 
a  number  of  years  in  a  tobacco  factory,  leading  a  wicked  life. 
Converted  in  1807,  he  made  rapid  advance  in  education  and 
he  was  licensed  as  a  Baptist  preacher.  He  purchased  his  own 
freedom  and  that  of  his  children  (his  first  wife  having  died), 
organized  a  missionary  society,  and  then  in  182 1  himself  went 
as  a  missionary  to  the  new  colony  of  Liberia,  in  whose  inter- 
est he  worked  heroically  until  his  death  in  1828. 

More   clearly   defined   than   the   origin   of    Negro   Baptist 

y.  churches  are  the  beginnings  of  African  Methodism.  Almost 
from  the  time  of  its  introduction  in  the  country  Methodism 
made  converts  among  the  Negroes  and  in  1786  there  were 
nearly  two  thousand  Negroes  in  the  regular  churches  of  the 
denomination,  which,  like  the  Baptist  denomination,  it  must 
be  remembered,  was  before  the  Revolution  largely  over- 
shadowed in  official  circles  by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
The  general  embarrassment  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Amer- 
ica in  connection  with  the  war,  and  the  departure  of  many 
loyalist  ministers,  gave  opportunity  to  other  denominations  as 
well  as  to  certain  bodies  of  Negroes.  The  white  members  of 
St.  George's  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Philadelphia,  how- 
ever, determined  to  set  apart  its  Negro  membership  and  to 
segregate  it  in  the  gallery.  Then  in  1787  came  a  day  when 
the  Negroes,  choosing  not  to  be  insulted,  and  led  by  Richard 
Allen  and  Absalom  Jones,  left  the  edifice,  and  with  these  two 
men  as  overseers  on  April  17  organized  the  Free  African  So- 
ciety. This  was  intended  to  be  "without  regard  to  religious 
tenets,"  the  members  being  banded  together  "to  support  one 
another  in  sickness  and  for  the  benefit  of  their  widows  and 
fatherless  children."  The  society  was  in  the  strictest  sense 
fraternal,  there  being  only  eight  charter  members :  Absalom 
Jones,  Richard  Allen,  Samuel  Boston,  Joseph  Johnson,  Cato 
Freeman,  Caesar  Cranchell,  James  Potter,  and  William  White. 
By  1790  the  society  had  on  deposit  in  the  Bank  of  North 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  69 

America  £42  9s.  id.,  and  that  it  generally  stood  for  racial  en- 
terprise may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  1788  an  organiza-  ( 
tion  in  Newport  known  as  the  Negro  Union,  in  which  Paul 
Cuffe  was  prominent,  wrote  proposing  a  general  exodus  of 
the  Negroes  to  Africa.  Nothing  came  of  the  suggestion  at  i 
the  time,  but  at  least  it  shows  that  representative  Negroes  of 
the  day  were  beginning  to  think  together  about  matters  of 
general  policy. 

In  course  of  time  the  Free  African  Society  of  Philadelphia 
resolved  into  an  "African  Church,"  and  this  became  affiliated  J 
with  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  whose  bishop  had  ex- 
ercised an  interest  in  it.  Out  of  this  organization  developed 
St.  Thomas's  Episcopal  Church,  organized  in  1791  and  for- 
mally opened  for  service  July  17,  1794.  Allen  was  at  first 
selected  for  ordination,  but  he  decided  to  remain  a  Methodist 
and  Jones  was  chosen  in  his  stead  and  thus  became  the  first 
Negro  rector  in  the  United  States,  Meanwhile,  however,  in 
1 79 1,  Allen  himself  had  purchased  a  lot  at  the  corner  of  Sixth 
and  Lombard  Streets;  he  at  once  set  about  arranging  for  the 
building  that  became  Bethel  Church;  and  in  1794  he  formally 
sold  the  lot  to  the  church  and  the  new  house  of  worship  was 
dedicated  by  Bishop  Asbury  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  With  this  general  body  Allen  and  his  people  for  a 
number  of  years  remained  affiliated,  but  difficulties  arose  and 
separate  churches  having  come  into  being  in  other  places,  a 
convention  of  Negro  Methodists  was  at  length  called  to  meet 
in  Philadelphia  April  9,  18 16.  To  this  came  sixteen  delegates 
— Richard  Allen,  Jacob  Tapsico,  Clayton  Durham,  James 
Champion,  Thomas  Webster,  of  Philadelphia;  Daniel  Coker, 
Richard  Williams,  Henry  Harden,  Stephen  Hill,  Edward 
Williamson,  Nicholas  Gailliard,  of  Baltimore:  Jacob  Marsh, 
Edward  Jackson,  William  Andrew,  of  Attleborough,  Penn. ; 
Peter  Spencer,  of  Wilmington,  Del.,  and  Peter  Cuffe,  of  Salem, 
N.  J. — and  these  were  the  men  who  founded  the  African  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  Coker,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  more 
in  connection  with  Liberia,  was  elected  bishop,  but  resigned 
in  favor  of  Allen,  who  served  until  his  death  in  1831. 

In  1796  a  congregation  in  New  York  consisting  of  James 
Varick  and  others  also  withdrew  from  the  main  body  of  the 


70      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  in  1800  dedicated  a  house 
of  worship.  For  a  number  of  years  it  had  the  oversight  of 
the  older  organization,  but  after  preliminary  steps  in  1820,  on 

v  June  21,  182 1,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church 
was  formally  organized.  To  the  first  conference  came  19 
preachers  representing  6  churches  and  1,426  members.  Varick 
was  elected  district  chairman,  but  soon  afterwards  was  made 
bishop.  The  polity  of  this  church  from  the  first  differed  some- 
what from  that  of  the  A.  M.  E.  denomination  in  that  repre- 
sentation of  the  laity  was  a  prominent  feature  and  there  was 
no  bar  to  the  ordination  of  women. 

Of  denominations  other  than  the  Baptist  and  the  Methodist, 
the  most  prominent  in  the  earlier  years  was  the  Presbyterian, 
whose  first  Negro  ministers  were  John  Gloucester  and  John 
Chavis.  Gloucester  owed  his  training  to  the  liberal  tendencies 
that  about  1800  were  still  strong  in  eastern  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  and  in  18 10  took  charge  of  the  African  Presbyterian 
Church  which  in  1807  had  been  established  in  Philadelphia. 
He  was  distinguished  by  a  rich  musical  voice  and  the  general 
dignity  of  his  life,  and  he  himself  became  the  father  of  four 
Presbyterian  ministers.  Chavis  had  a  very  unusual  career. 
After  passing  ''through  a  regular  course  of  academic  studies" 
at  Washington  Academy,  now  Washington  and  Lee  University, 
in  1 801  he  was  commissioned  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterians  as  a  missionary  to  the  Negroes.  He  worked  with 
increasing  reputation  until  Nat  Turner's  insurrection  caused 
the  North  Carolina  legislature  in  1832  to  pass  an  act  silencing 
all  Negro  preachers.  Then  in  Wake  County  and  elsewhere  he 
conducted  schools  for  white  boys  until  his  death  in  1838.  In 
these  early  years  distinction  also  attaches  to  Lemuel  Haynes, 
a  Revolutionary  patriot  and  the  first  Negro  preacher  of  the 
Congregational  denomination.  In  1785  he  became  the  pastor 
of  a  white  congregation  in  Torrington,  Conn.,  and  in  1818  be- 
•^.gan  to  serve  another  in  Manchester,  N.  H. 

'*  J  After  the  church  the  strongest  organization  among  Negroes 
has  undoubtedly  been  that  of  secret  societies  commonly  known 
as  "lodges."  The  benefit  societies  were  not  necessarily  secret 
and  call  for  separate  consideration.  On  March  6,  1775,  an 
army  lodge  attached  to  one  of  the  regiments  stationed  under 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  71 

General  Gage  in  or  near  Boston  initiated  Prince  Hall  and 
fourteen  other  colored  men  into  the  mysteries  of  Freemasonry.* 
These  fifteen  men  on  March  2,  1784,  applied  to  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  England  for  a  warrant.  This  was  issued  to  "Afri- 
can Lodge,  No.  459,"  with  Prince  Hall  as  master,  September 
29,  1784.  Various  delays  and  misadventures  befell  the  war- 
rant, however,  so  that  it  was  not  actually  received  before 
April  29,  1787.  The  lodge  was  then  duly  organized  May  6. 
From  this  beginning  developed  the  idea  of  Masonry  among-3& 
the  Negroes  of  America.  As  early  as  1792  Hall  was  formally 
styled  Grand  Master,  and  in  1797  he  issued  a  license  to  thirteen 
Negroes  to  "assemble  and  work"  as  a  lodge  in  Philadelphia; 
and  there  was  also  at  this  time  a  lodge  in  Providence.  Thus 
developed  in  1808  the  "African  Grand  Lodge"  of  Boston,  after- 
wards known  as  "Prince  Hall  Lodge  of  Massachusetts";  the 
second  Grand  Lodge,  called  the  "First  Independent  African 
Grand  Lodge  of  North  America  in  and  for  the  Commonwealth 
of  Pennsylvania,"  organized  in  181 5;  and  the  "Hiram  Grand 
Lodge  of  Pennsylvania," 

Something  of  the  interest  of  the  Masons  in  their  people,  and 
the  calm  judgment  that  characterized  their  procedure,  may  be 
seen  from  the  words  of  their  leader,  Prince  Hall.f  Speaking 
in  1797,  and  having  in  mind  the  revolution  in  Hayti  and  re- 
cent indignities  inflicted  upon  the  race  in  Boston,  he  said  : 


When  we  hear  of  the  bloody  wars  which  are  now  in  the  world, 
and  thousands  of  our  fellowmen  slain;  fathers  and  mothers  bewail- 
ing the  loss  of  their  sons ;  wives  for  the  loss  of  their  husbands ;  towns 
and  cities  burnt  and  destroyed;  what  must  be  the  heartfelt  sorrow 
and  distress  of  these  poor  and  unhappy  people !  Though  we  can  not 
help  them,  the  distance  being  so  great,  yet  we  may  sympathize  with 
them  in  their  troubles,  and  mingle  a  tear  of  sorrow  with  them,  and 
do  as  we  are  exhorted  to — weep  with  those  that  weep.  .  .  . 

Now,  my  brethren,  as  we  see  and  experience  that  all  things  here 
are  frail  and  changeable  and  nothing  here  to  be  depended  upon :  Let 
us  seek  those  things  which  are  above,  which  are  sure  and  steadfast, 
and  unchangeable,  and  at  the  same  time  let  us  pray  to  Almighty  God, 
while  we  remain  in  the  tabernacle,  that  he  would  give  us  the  grace 

*  William  H.  Upton:    Negro  Masonry,  Cambridge,  1899,  10. 
t  "A  Charge  Delivered  to  the  African  Lodge,  June  24,  1797,  at  Menot- 
omy.    By  the  Right  Worshipful  Prince  Hall."  (Boston?)    1797. 


■1 


72      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  patience  and  strength  to  bear  up  under  all  our  troubles,  which  at 
this  day  God  knows  we  have  our  share.  Patience  I  say,  for  were 
we  not  possessed  of  a  great  measure  of  it  you  could  not  bear  up 
under  the  daily  insults  you  meet  with  in  the  streets  of  Boston;  much 
more  on  public  days  of  recreation,  how  are  you  shamefully  abused, 
and  that  at  such  a  degree,  that  you  may  truly  be  said  to  carry  your 
lives  in  your  hands;  and  the  arrows  of  death  are  flying  about  your 
heads;  helpless  old  women  have  their  clothes  torn  off  their  backs, 
even  to  the  exposing  of  their  nakedness;  and  by  whom  are  these 
disgraceful  and  abusive  actions  committed?  Not  by  the  men  born 
and  bred  in  Boston,  for  they  are  better  bred;  but  by  a  mob  or  horde 
of  shameless,  low-lived,  envious,  spiteful  persons,  some  of  them  not 
long  since,  servants  in  gentlemen's  kitchens,  scouring  knives,  tending 
horses,  and  driving  chaise.  'Twas  said  by  a  gentleman  who  saw  that 
filthy  behavior  in  the  Common,  that  in  all  the  places  he  had  been  in 
he  never  saw  so  cruel  behavior  in  all  his  life,  and  that  a  slave  in  the 
West  Indies,  on  Sundays  or  holidays,  enjoys  himself  and  friends 
without  molestation.  Not  only  this  man,  but  many  in  town  who  have 
seen  their  behavior  to  you,  and  that  without  any  provocations  twenty 
or  thirty  cowards  fall  upon  one  man,  have  wondered  at  the  patience 
of  the  blacks :  'tis  not  for  want  of  courage  in  you,  for  they  know  that 
they  dare  not  face  you  man  for  man,  but  in  a  mob,  which  we  despise, 
and  had  rather  suffer  wrong  than  do  wrong,  to  the  disturbance  of  the 
community  and  the  disgrace  of  our  reputation;  for  every  good  citizen 
does  honor  to  the  laws  of  the  State  where  he  resides.  .  .  . 

My  brethren,  let  us  not  be  cast  down  under  these  and  many  other 
abuses  we  at  present  labor  under :  for  the  darkest  is  before  the  break 
of  day.  My  brethren,  let  us  remember  what  a  dark  day  it  was  with 
our  African  brethren  six  years  ago,  in  the  French  West  Indies. 
Nothing  but  the  snap  of  the  whip  was  heard  from  morning  to  evening ; 
hanging,  breaking  on  the  wheel,  burning,  and  all  manner  of  tortures 
inflicted  on  those  unhappy  people,  for  nothing  else  but  to  gratify 
their  masters'  pride,  wantonness,  and  cruelty:  but  blessed  be  God, 
the  scene  is  changed;  they  now  confess  that  God  hath  no  respect  of 
persons,  and  therefore  receive  them  as  their  friends,  and  treat  them 
as  brothers.  Thus  doth  Ethiopia  begin  to  stretch  forth  her  hand, 
from  a  sink  of  slavery  to  freedom  and  equality. 

An  African  Society  was  organized  in  New  York  in  1808 
and  chartered  in  18 10,  and  out  of  it  grew  in  course  of  time 
three  or  four  other  organizations.  Generally  close  to  the  social 
aim  of  the  church  and  sometimes  directly  fathered  by  the 
secret  societies  were  the  benefit  organizations,  which  even  in 
the  days  of  slavery  existed  for  aid  in  sickness  or  at  death ;  in 
fact,  it  was  the  hopelessness  of  the  general  situation  coupled 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  73 

with  the  yearning  for  care  when  helpless  that  largely  called 
these  societies  into  being.  Their  origin  has  been  explained 
somewhat  as  follows : 

Although  it  was  unlawful  for  Negroes  to  assemble  without  the 
presence  of  a  white  man,  and  so  unlawful  to  allow  a  congregation  of 
slaves  on  a  plantation  without  the  consent  of  the  master,  these  organ- 
izations existed  and  held  these  meetings  on  the  "lots"  of  some  of  the 
law-makers  themselves.  The  general  plan  seems  to  have  been  to 
select  some  one  who  could  read  and  write  and  make  him  the  secre- 
tary. The  meeting-place  having  been  selected,  the  members  would 
come  by  ones  and  twos,  make  their  payments  to  the  secretary,  and 
quietly  withdraw.  The  book  of  the  secretary  was  often  kept  covered 
up  on  the  bed.  In  many  of  the  societies  each  member  was  known  by 
number  and  in  paying  simply  announced  his  number.  The  president 
of  such  a  society  was  usually  a  privileged  slave  who  had  the  confi- 
dence of  his  or  her  master  and  could  go  and  come  at  will.  Thus  a 
form  of  communication  could  be  kept  up  between  all  members.  In 
event  of  death  of  a  member,  provision  was  made  for  decent  burial, 
and  all  the  members  as  far  as  possible  obtained  permits  to  attend  the 
funeral.  Here  and  again  their  plan  of  getting  together  was  brought 
into  play.  In  Richmond  they  would  go  to  the  church  by  ones  and 
twos  and  there  sit  as  near  together  as  convenient.  At  the  close  of  the 
service  a  line  of  march  would  be  formed  when  sufficiently  far  from 
the  church  to  make  it  safe  to  do  so.  It  is  reported  that  the  members 
were  faithful  to  each  other  and  that  every  obligation  was  faithfully 
carried  out.  This  was  the  first  form  of  insurance  known  to  the  Negro 
from  which  his  family  received  a  benefit.* 

All  along  of  course  a  determining  factor  in  the  Negro's^ 
social  progress  was  the  service  that  he  was  able  to  render  to 
any  community  in  which  he  found  himself  as  well  as  to  his 
own  people.  Sometimes  he  was  called  upon  to  do  very  hard 
work,  sometimes  very  unpleasant  or  dangerous  work;  but  if 
he  answered  the  call  of  duty  and  met  an  actual  human  need, 
his  service  had  to  receive  recognition.  An  example  of  such 
work  was  found  in  his  conduct  in  the  course  of  the  yellow 
fever  epidemic  in  Philadelphia  in  1793.  Knowing  that  fever 
in  general  was  not  quite  as  severe  in  its  ravages  upon  Negroes 
as  upon  white  people,  the  daily  papers  of  Philadelphia  called 
upon  the  colored  people  in  the  town  to  come  forward  and  as- 
sist with  the  sick.    The  Negroes  consented,  and  Absalom  Jones 

*  Hampton  Conference  Report,  No.  8; 


74      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  William  Gray  were  appointed  to  superintend  the  opera- 
tions, though  as  usual  it  was  upon  Richard  Allen  that  much  of 
the  real  responsibility  fell.  In  September  the  fever  increased 
and  upon  the  Negroes  devolved  also  the  duty  of  removing 
corpses.  In  the  course  of  their  work  they  encountered  much 
opposition;  thus  Jones  said  that  a  white  man  threatened  to 
shoot  him  if  he  passed  his  house  with  a  corpse.  This  man 
himself  the  Negroes  had  to  bury  three  days  afterwards. 
When  the  epidemic  was  over,  under  date  January  23,  1794, 
Matthew  Clarkson,  the  mayor,  wrote  the  following  testi- 
monial :  "Having,  during  the  prevalence  of  the  late  malignant 
disorder,  had  almost  daily  opportunities  of  seeing  the  conduct 
of  Absalom  Jones  and  Richard  Allen,  and  the  people  employed 
by  them  to  bury  the  dead,  I  with  cheerfulness  give  this  testi- 
mony of  my  approbation  of  their  proceedings,  as  far  as  the 
same  came  under  my  notice.  Their  diligence,  attention,  and  y 
decency  of  deportment,  afforded  me,  at  the  time,  much  satis-l 
faction/'  After  the  lapse  of  years  it  is  with  something  of 
the  pathos  of  martyrdom  that  we  are  impressed  by  the  service 
of  these  struggling  people,  who  by  their  self-abnegation  and 
patriotism  endeavored  to  win  and  deserve  the  privileges  of 
American  citizenship. 

All  the  while,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  Negro  was  mak- 
ing advance  in  education.  As  early  as  1704  we  have  seen 
that  Neau  opened  a  school  in  New  York ;  there  was  Benezet's 
school  in  Philadelphia  before  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  in 
1798  one  for  Negroes  was  established  in  Boston.  In  the  first 
part  of  the  century,  we  remember  also,  some  Negroes  were 
apprenticed  in  Virginia  under  the  oversight  of  the  church. 
In  1764  the  editor  of  a  paper  in  Williamsburg,  Va.,  estab- 
lished a  school  for  Negroes,  and  we  have  seen  that  as  many 
as  one-sixth  of  the  members  of  Andrew  Bryan's  congrega- 
tion in  the  far  Southern  city  of  Savannah  could  read  by  1790. 
Exceptional  men,  like  Gloucester  and  Chavis,  of  course  availed 
themselves  of  such  opportunities  as  came  their  way.  All  told, 
by  1800  the  Negro  had  received  much  more  education  than 
is  commonly  supposed. 
v  Two  persons — one  in  science  and  one  in  literature — because 
of  their  unusual  attainments  attracted  much  attention.     The 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ERA  75 

first  was  Benjamin  Banneker  of  Maryland,  and  the  second 
Phillis  Wheatley  of  Boston.  Banneker  in  1770  constructed 
the  first  clock  striking  the  hours  that  was  made  in  America, 
and  from  1792  to  1806  published  an  almanac  adapted  to 
Maryland  and  the  neighboring  states.  He  was  thoroughly 
scholarly  in  mathematics  and  astronomy,  and  by  his  achieve- 
ments won  a  reputation  for  himself  in  Europe  as  well  as  in 
America.  Phillis  Wheatley,  after  a  romantic  girlhood  of 
transition  from  Africa  to  a  favorable  environment  in  Boston, 
in  1773  published  her  Poems  on  Various  Subjects,  which  vol- 
ume she  followed  with  several  interesting  occasional  poems.* 
For  the  summer  of  this  year  she  was  the  guest  in  England  of 
the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  whose  patronage  she  had  won 
by  an  elegiac  poem  on  George  Whitefield ;  in  conversation  even 
more  than  in  verse-making  she  exhibited  her  refined  taste  and 
accomplishment,  and  presents  were  showered  upon  her,  one 
of  them  being  a  copy  of  the  magnificent  1770  Glasgow  folio 
edition  of  Paradise  Lost,  which  was  given  by  Brook  Watson, 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  which  is  now  preserved  in  the 
library  of  Harvard  University.  In  the  earlier  years  of  the 
next  century  her  poems  found  their  way  into  the  common 
school  readers.  One  of  those  in  her  representative  volume 
was  addressed  to  Scipio  Moorhead,  a  young  Negro  of  Bos- 
ton who  had  shown  some  talent  for  painting.  Thus  even  in 
a  dark  day  there  were  those  who  were  trying  to  struggle  up- 
ward to  the  light. 

*  For  a  full  study  see  Chapter  II  of   The  Negro  in  Literature  and 
Art. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  NEW  WEST,  THE  SOUTH,  AND  THE  WEST  INDIES 

The  twenty  years  of  the  administrations  of  the  first  three 
presidents  of  the  United  States — or,  we  might  say,  the  three 
decades  between  1790  and  1820 — constitute  what  might  be 
considered  the  "Dark  Ages"  of  Negro  history;  and  yet,  as  with 
'most  "Dark  Ages,"  at  even  a  glance  below  the  surface  these 
years  will  be  found  to  be  throbbing  with  life,  and  we  have 
already  seen  that  in  them  the  Negro  was  doing  what  he  could 
on  his  own  account  to  move  forward.  After  the  high  moral 
stand  of  the  Revolution,  however,  the  period  seems  quiescent, 
and  it  was  indeed  a  time  of  definite  reaction.  This  was  at- 
tributable to  three  great  events :  the  opening  of  the  Southwest 
with  the  consequent  demand  for  slaves,  the  Haytian  revolu- 
tion beginning  in  179 1,  and  Gabriel's  insurrection  in  1800. 
In  no  way  was  the  reaction  to  be  seen  more  clearly  than 
-  in  the  decline  of  the  work  of  the  American  Convention  of 
Delegates  from  the  Abolition  Societies.  After  1798  neither 
Connecticut  nor  Rhode  Island  sent  delegates;  the  Southern 
states  all  fell  away  by  1803;  and  while  from  New  England 
came  the  excuse  that  local  conditions  hardly  made  aggressive 
effort  any  longer  necessary,  the  lack  of  zeal  in  this  section 
was  also  due  to  some  extent  to  a  growing  question  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  interfering  with  slavery  in  the  South.  In  Virginia, 
that  just  a  few  years  before  had  been  so  active,  a  statute 
was  now  passed  imposing  a  penalty  of  one  hundred  dollars 
on  any  person  who  assisted  a  slave  in  asserting  his  freedom, 
provided  he  failed  to  establish  the  claim;  and  another  pro- 
vision enjoined  that  no  member  of  an  abolition  society  should 
serve  as  a  juror  in  a  freedom  suit.  Even  the  Pennsylvania 
society  showed  signs  of  faintheartedness,  and  in  1806  the 
Convention  decided  upon  triennial  rather  than  annual  meet- 

76 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES      y7 

ings.     It  did  not  again  become  really  vigorous  until  after  the 
War  of  1812. 

1.     The  Cot  ton-Gin,  the  New  Southwest,  and  the  First  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law 

Of  incalculable  significance  in  the  history  of  the  Negro  in 
America  was  the  series  of  inventions  in  England  by  Ark- 
wright,  Hargreaves,  and  Crompton  in  the  years  1768-79.  In 
the  same  period  came  the  discovery  of  the  power  of  steam  by 
James  Watt  of  Glasgow  and  its  application  to  cotton  manu- 
facture, and  improvements  followed  quickly  in  printing  and 
bleaching.  There  yet  remained  one  final  invention  of  im- 
portance for  the  cultivation  of  cotton  on  a  large  scale.  Eli 
Whitney,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  went  to  Georgia  and  was  em- 
ployed as  a  teacher  by  the  widow  of  General  Greene  on  her 
plantation.  Seeing  the  need  of  some  machine  for  the  more 
rapid  separating  of  cotton-seed  from  the  fiber,  he  labored 
until  in  1793  he  succeeded  in  making  his  cotton-gin  of  prac- 
tical value.  The  tradition  is  persistent,  however,  that  the 
real  credit  of  the  invention  belongs  to  a  Negro  on  the  planta- 
tion. The  cotton-gin  created  great  excitement  throughout 
the  South  and  began  to  be  utilized  everywhere.  The  cultiva- 
tion and  exporting  of  the  staple  grew  by  leaps  and  bounds.  In 
1 79 1  only  thirty-eight  bales  of  standard  size  were  exported 
from  the  United  States;  in  18 16,  however,  the  cotton  sent 
out  of  the  country  was  worth  $24,106,000  and  was  by  far 
the  most  valuable  article  of  export.  The  current  price  was 
28  cents  a  pound.  Thus  at  the  very  time  that  the  Northern 
states  were  abolishing  slavery,  an  industry  that  had  slumbered 
became  supreme,  and  the  fate  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Negroes  was  sealed. 

Meanwhile  the  opening  of  the  West  went  forward,  and 
from  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  Carolina  and  Georgia  jour- 
neyed the  pioneers  to  lay  the  foundations  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois,  and  Alabama  and  Mississippi.  It  was  an  eager, 
restless  caravan  that  moved,  and  sometimes  more  than  a 
hundred  persons  in  a  score  of  wagons  were  to  be  seen  going 
from  a  single  town  in  the  East — "Baptists  and  Methodists  and 


78      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Democrats."  The  careers  of  Boone  and  Sevier  and  those  who 
went  with  them,  and  the  story  of  their  fights  with  the  In- 
dians, are  now  a  part  of  the  romance  of  American  history. 
In  1790  a  cluster  of  log  huts  on  the  Ohio  River  was  named 
in  honor  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.  In  1792  Kentucky 
was  admitted  to  the  Union,  the  article  on  slavery  in  her  con- 
stitution encouraging  the  system  and  discouraging  emancipa- 
tion, and  Tennessee  also  entered  as  a  slave  state  in  1796. 

Of  tremendous  import  to  the  Negro  were  the  questions 
relating  to  the  Mississippi  Territory.  After  the  Revolution 
Georgia  laid  claim  to  great  tracts  of  land  now  comprising 
the  states  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  with  the  exception  of 
the  strip  along  the  coast  claimed  by  Spain  in  connection  with 
Florida.  This  territory  became  a  rich  field  for  speculation, 
and  its  history  in  its  entirety  makes  a  complicated  story.  A 
series  of  sales  to  what  were  known  as  the  Yazoo  Companies, 
especially  in  that  part  of  the  present  states  whose  northern 
boundary  would  be  a  line  drawn  from  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo 
to  the  Chattahoochee,  resulted  in  conflicting  claims,  the  last 
grant  sale  being  made  in  1795  by  a  corrupt  legislature  at 
the  price  of  a  cent  and  a  half  an  acre.  James  Jackson  now 
raised  the  cry  of  bribery  and  corruption,  resigned  from  the 
United  States  Senate,  secured  a  seat  in  the  state  legislature, 
and  on  February  13,  1796,  carried  through  a  bill  rescinding 
the  action  of  the  previous  year,*  and  the  legislature  burned  the 
documents  concerned  with  the  Yazoo  sale  in  token  of  its  com- 
plete repudiation  of  them.  The  purchasers  to  whom  the  com- 
panies had  sold  lands  now  began  to  bombard  Congress  with  pe- 
titions and  President  Adams  helped  to>  arrive  at  a  settlement 
by  which  Georgia  transferred  the  lands  in  question  to  the 
Federal  Government,  which  undertook  to  form  of  them  the 
Mississippi  Territory  and  to  pay  any  damages  involved.  In 
1802  Georgia  threw  the  whole  burden  upon  the  central  gov- 
ernment by  transferring  to  it  all  of  her  land  beyond  her  pres- 
ent boundaries,  though  for  this  she  exacted  an  article  favorable 
to  slavery.  All  was  now  made  into  the  Mississippi  Territory, 
to  which  Congress  held  out  the  promise  that  it  would  be  ad- 

*  Phillips  in  The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation,  II,  154. 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES       79 

mitted  as  a  state  as  soon  as  its  population  numbered  60,000; 
but  Alabama  was  separated  from  Mississippi  in  18 16.  The  old 
matter  of  claims  was  not  finally  disposed  of  until  an  act  of 
1 8 14  appropriated  $5,000,000  for  the  purpose.  In  the  same 
year  Andrew  Jackson's  decisive  victories  over  the  Creeks  at 
Talladega  and  Horseshoe  Bend — of  which  more  must  be  said 
— resulted  in  the  cession  of  a  vast  tract  of  the  land  of  that 
unhappy  nation  and  thus  finally  opened  for  settlement  three- 
fourths  of  the  present  state  of  Alabama. 

It  was  in  line  with  the  advance  that  slavery  was  making 
in  new  territory  that  there  was  passed  the  first  Fugitive  Slave 
Act  (1793).  This  grew  out  of  the  discussion  incident  to 
the  seizure  in  1791  at  Washington,  Penn.,  of  a  Negro  named 
John,  who  was  taken  to  Virginia,  and  the  correspondence  be- 
tween the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Governor  of 
Virginia  with  reference  to  the  case.  The  important  third 
section  of  the  act  read  as  follows : 

And  be  it  also  enacted,  That  when  a  person  held  to  labor  in  any 
of  the  United  States,  or  in  either  of  the  territories  on  the  northwest 
or  south  of  the  river  Ohio,  under  the  laws  thereof,  shall  escape  into 
any  other  of  the  said  states  or  territory,  the  person  to  whom  such 
labor  or  service  may  be  due,  his  agent  or  attorney,  is  hereby  empow- 
ered to  seize  or  arrest  such  fugitive  from  labor,  and  to  take  him  or 
her  before  any  judge  of  the  circuit  or  district  courts  of  the  United 
States,  residing  or  being  within  the  state,  or  before  any  magistrate 
of  a  county,  city  or  town  corporate,  wherein  such  seizure  or  arrest 
shall  be  made,  and  upon  proof  to  the  satisfaction  of  such  judge  or 
magistrate,  either  by  oral  testimony  or  affidavit  taken  before  and 
certified  by  a  magistrate  of  any  such  state  or  territory,  that  the  per- 
son so  seized  or  arrested,  doth,  under  the  laws  of  the  state  or  terri- 
tory from  which  he  or  she  fled,  owe  service  or  labor  to  the  person 
claiming  him  or  her,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  judge  or  magistrate 
to  give  a  certificate  thereof  to  such  claimant,  his  agent  or  attorney, 
which  shall  be  sufficient  warrant  for  removing  the  said  fugitive  from 
labor,  to  the  state  or  territory  from  which  he  or  she  fled. 

It  will  be  observed  that  by  the  terms  of  this  enactment  a  . 
master  had  the  right  to  recover  a  fugitive  slave  by  proving  \ 
his  ownership  before  a  magistrate  without  a  jury  or  any  other 
of  the  ordinary  forms  of  law.     A  human  being  was  thus 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  lowest  of  courts  and  subjected  to 


80       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

such  procedure  as  was  not  allowed  even  in  petty  property  suits. 
A  great  field  for  the  bribery  of  magistrates  was  opened  up,  and 
opportunity  was  given  for  committing  to  slavery  Negro  men 
about  whose  freedom  there  should  have  been  no  question. 

By  the  close  of  the  decade  1790- 1800  the  fear  occasioned 
by  the  Haytian  revolution  had  led  to  a  general  movement 
against  the  importation  of  Negroes,  especially  of  those  from 
the  West  Indies.  Even  Georgia  in  1798  prohibited  the  im- 
portation of  all  slaves,  and  this  provision,  although  very 
loosely  enforced,  was  never  repealed.  In  South  Carolina,  how- 
ever, to  the  utter  chagrin  and  dismay  of  the  other  states,  im- 
portation, prohibited  in  1787,  was  again  legalized  in  1803; 
and  in  the  four  years  immediately  following  39,075  Negroes 
were  brought  to  Charleston,  most  of  these  going  to  the  ter- 
ritories.* When  in  1803  Ohio  was  carved  out  of  the  North- 
west Territory  as  a  free  state,  an  attempt  was  made  to  claim 
the  rest  of  the  territory  for  slavery,  but  this  failed.  In  the 
congressional  session  of  1804-5  the  matter  of  slavery  in 
the  newly  acquired  territory  of  Louisiana  was  brought  up,  and 
slaves  were  allowed  to  be  imported  if  they  had  come  to  the 
United  States  before  1798,  the  purpose  of  this  provision  be- 
ing to  guard  against  the  consequences  of  South  Carolina's  re- 
cent act,  although  such  a  clause  never  received  rigid  enforce- 
ment. The  mention  of  Louisiana,  however,  brings  us  con- 
cretely to  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  greatest  Negro  in  the 
New  World  in  the  period  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  time. 

2.     Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  Louisiana,  and  the  Formal  Closing 
of  the  Slave-Trade 

When  the  French  Revolution  broke  out  in  1789,  it  was 
not  long  before  its  general  effects  were  felt  in  the  West  Indies. 
Of  special  importance  was  Santo  Domingo  because  of  the  com- 
mercial interests  centered  there.  The  eastern  end  of  the  island 
was  Spanish,  but  the  western  portion  was  French,  and  in  this 
latter  part  was  a  population  of  600,000,  of  which  number 
50,000  were  French'' Creoles,  50,000  mulattoes,  and  500,000 
pure  Negroes.    All  political  and  social  privileges  were  monopo- 

*  DuBois :    Suppression  of  the  Slave-Trade,  go. 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES      81 

lized  by  the  Creoles,  while  the  Negroes  were  agricultural  la- 
borers and  slaves;  and  between  the  two  groups  floated  the 
restless  element  of  the  free  people  of  color. 

When  the  General  Assembly  in  France  decreed  equality 
of  rights  to  all  citizens,  the  mulattoes  of  Santo  Domingo  made 
a  petition  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  same  political  privileges  as 
the  white  people — to  the  unbounded  consternation  of  the  lat- 
ter. They  were  rewarded  with  a  decree  which  was  so  am- 
biguously worded  that  it  was  open  to  different  interpreta- 
tions and  which  simply  heightened  the  animosity  that  for  years 
had  been  smoldering.  A  new  petition  to  the  Assembly  in 
1 79 1  primarily  for  an  interpretation  brought  forth  on  May 
15  the  explicit  decree  that  the  people  of  color  were  to  have 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizen  „  provided  they  had 
been  born  of  free  parents  on  both  sides.  The  white  people 
were  enraged  by  the  decision,  turned  royalist,  and  trampled 
the  national  cockade  underfoot;  and  throughout  the  summer 
armed  strife  and  conflagration  were  the  rule.  To  add  to  the 
confusion  the  black  slaves  struck  for  freedom  and  on  the 
night  of  August  23,  1791,  drenched  the  island  in  blood.  In 
the  face  of  these  events  the  Conventional  Assembly  rescinded 
its  order,  then  announced  that  the  original  decree  must  be 
obeyed,  and  it  sent  three  commissioners  with  troops  to  Santo 
Domingo,  real  authority  being  invested  in  Santhonax  and 
Polverel. 

On  June  20,  1793,  at  Cape  Frangois  trouble  was  renewed 
by  a  quarrel  between  a  mulatto  and  a  white  officer  in  the 
marines.  The  seamen  came  ashore  and  loaned  their  assistance 
to  the  white  people,  and  the  Negroes  now  joined  forces  with 
the  mulattoes.  In  the  battle  of  two  days  that  followed  the 
arsenal  was  taken  and  plundered,  thousands  were  killed  in 
the  streets,  and  more  than  half  of  the  town  was  burned.  The 
French  commissioners  were  the  unhappy  witnesses  of  the 
scene,  but  they  were  practically  helpless,  having  only  about  a 
thousand  troops.  Santhonax,  however,  issued  a  proclamation 
offering  freedom  to  all  slaves  who  were  willing  to  range  them- 
selves under  the  banner  of  the  Republic.  This  was  the  first 
proclamation  for  the  freeing  of  slaves  in  Santo  Domingo,  and 


82      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

as  a  result  of  it  many  of  the  Negroes  came  in  and  were  en- 
franchised. 

Soon  after  this  proclamation  Polverel  left  his  colleague 
at  the  Cape  and  went  to  Port  au  Prince,  the  capital  of  the 
West.  Here  things  were  quiet  and  the  cultivation  of  the  crops 
was  going  forward  as  usual.  The  slaves  were  soon  unsettled, 
however,  by  the  news  of  what  was  being  done  elsewhere,  and 
Polverel  was  convinced  that  emancipation  could  not  be  de- 
layed and  that  for  the  safety  of  the  planters  themselves  it 
was  necessary  to  extend  it  to  the  whole  island.  In  September 
(1793)  he  set  in  circulation  from  Aux  Cayes  a  proclamation 
to  this  effect,  and  at  the  same  time  he  exhorted  all  the  plant- 
ers in  the  vicinity  who  concurred  in  his  work  to  register  their 
names.  This  almost  all  of  them  did,  as  they  were  convinced 
of  the  need  of  measures  for  their  personal  safety;  and  on 
February  4,  1794,  the  Conventional  Assembly  in  Paris  formally 
approved  all  that  had  been  done  by  decreeing  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  all  the  colonies  of  France. 

All  the  while  the  Spanish  and  the  English  had  been  looking 
on  with  interest  and  had  even  come  to  the  French  part  of  the 
island  as  if  to  aid  in  the  restoration  of  order.  Among  the 
former,  at  first  in  charge  of  a  little  royalist  band,  was  the 
Negro,  Toussaint,  later  called  L'Ouverture.  He  was  then  a 
man  in  the  prime  of  life,  forty-eight  years  old,  and  already  his 
experience  had  given  him  the  wisdom  that  was  needed  to  bring 
peace  in  Santo  Domingo.  In  April,  1794,  impressed  by  the 
decree  of  the  Assembly,  he  returned  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
France  and  took  service  under  the  Republic.  In  1796  he  be- 
came a  general  of  brigade;  in  1797  general-in-chief,  with  the 
military  command  of  the  whole  colony. 

He  at  once  compelled  the  surrender  of  the  English  who 
had  invaded  his  country.  With  the  aid  of  a  commercial  agree- 
ment with  the  United  States,  he  next  starved  out  the  garri- 
son of  his  rival,  the  mulatto  Rigaud,  whom  he  forced  to 
consent  to  leave  the  country.  He  then  imprisoned  Roume,  the 
agent  of  the  Directory,  and  assumed  civil  as  well  as  military 
authority.  He  also  seized  the  Spanish  part  of  the  island,  which 
had  been  ceded  to  France  some  years  before  but  had  not  been 
actually  surrendered.     He  then,  in  May,  1801,  gave  to  Santo 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES      83 

Domingo  a  constitution  by  which  he  not  only  assumed  power 
for  life  but  gave  to  himself  the  right  of  naming  his  successor; 
and  all  the  while  he  was  awakening  the  admiration  of  the 
world  by  his  bravery,  his  moderation,  and  his  genuine  in- 
stinct for  government. 

Across  the  ocean,  however,  a  jealous  man  was  watching 
with  interest  the  career  of  the  "gilded  African."  None  knew 
better  than  Napoleon  that  it  was  because  he  did  not  trust 
France  that  Toussaint  had  sought  the  friendship  of  the  United 
States,  and  none  read  better  than  he  the  logic  of  events.  As 
Adams  says,  "Bonaparte's  acts  as  well  as  his  professions 
showed  that  he  was  bent  on  crushing  democratic  ideas,  and 
that  he  regarded  St.  Domingo  as  an  outpost  of  American  re- 
publicanism, although  Toussaint  had  made  a  rule  as  arbitrary 
as  that  of  Bonaparte  himself.  ...  By  a  strange  confusion  of 
events,  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  because  he  was  a  Negro,  be- 
came the  champion  of  republican  principles,  with  which  he 
had  nothing  but  the  instinct  of  personal  freedom  in  common. 
Toussaint's  government  was  less  republican  than  that  of  Bona- 
parte; he  was  doing  by  necessity  in  St.  Domingo  what  Bona- 
part  was  doing  by  choice  in  France."  * 

This  was  the  man  to  whom  the  United  States  ultimately 
owes  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  On  October  1,  1801,  Bona- 
parte gave  orders  to  General  Le  Clerc  for  a  great  expedition 
against  Santo  Domingo.  In  January,  1802,  Le  Clerc  appeared 
and  war  followed.  In  the  course  of  this,  Toussaint — who  was 
ordinarily  so  wise  and  who  certainly  knew  that  from  Napoleon 
he  had  most  to  fear — made  the  great  mistake  of  his  life  and 
permitted  himself  to  be  led  into  a  conference  on  a  French  ves- 
sel. He  was  betrayed  and  taken  to  France,  where  within  the 
year  he  died  of  pneumonia  in  the  dungeon  of  Joux.  Immedi- 
ately there  was  a  proclamation  annulling  the  decree  of  1794 
giving  freedom  to  the  slaves.  Bonaparte,  however,  had  not 
estimated  the  force  of  Toussaint's  work,  and  to  assist  the 
Negroes  in  their  struggle  now  came  a  stalwart  ally,  yellow 
fever.  By  the  end  of  the  summer  only  one-seventh  of  Le 
Clerc's  army  remained,  and  he  himself  died  in  November.    At 

*  History  of  the  United  States,  I,  391-392. 


84      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

once  Bonaparte  planned  a  new  expedition.  While  he  was  ar- 
ranging for  the  leadership  of  this,  however,  the  European  war 
broke  out  again.  Meanwhile  the  treaty  for  the  retrocession 
of  the  territory  of  Louisiana  had  not  yet  received  the  signa- 
ture of  the  Spanish  king,  because  Godoy,  the  Spanish  repre- 
sentative, would  not  permit  the  signature  to  be  affixed  until 
all  the  conditions  were  fulfilled;  and  toward  the  end  of  1802 
the  civil  officer  at  New  Orleans  closed  the  Mississippi  to  the 
United  States.  Jefferson,  at  length  moved  by  the  plea  of 
the  South,  sent  a  special  envoy,  no  less  a  man  than  James  Mon- 
roe, to  France  to  negotiate  the  purchase ;  Bonaparte,  disgusted 
by  the  failure  of  his  Egyptian  expedition  and  his  project  for 
reaching  India,  and  especially  by  his  failure  in  Santo  Domingo, 
in  need  also  of  ready  money,  listened  to  the  offer;  and  the 
people  of  the  United  States — who  within  the  last  few  years 
have  witnessed  the  spoliation  of  Hayti — have  not  yet  realized 
how  much  they  owe  to  the  courage  of  500,000  Haytian  Ne- 
groes who  refused  to  be  slaves. 

The  slavery  question  in  the  new  territory  was  a  critical 
one.  It  was  on  account  of  it  that  the  Federalists  had  opposed 
the  acquisition;  the  American  Convention  endeavored  to  se- 
cure a  provision  like  that  of  the  Northwest  Ordinance;  and 
the  Yearly  Meeting  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  Philadelphia 
in  1805  prayed  "that  effectual  measures  may  be  adopted  by 
Congress  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  any  of  the 
territories  of  the  United  States."  Nevertheless  the  whole  ter- 
ritory without  regard  to  latitude  was  thrown  open  to  the  sys- 
1  tern  March  2,  1805. 

In  spite  of  this  victory  for  slavery,  however,  the  general 
force  of  the  events  in  Hayti  was  such  as  to  make  more  cer- 
tain the  formal  closing  of  the  slave-trade  at  the  end  of  the 
twenty-year  period  for  which  the  Constitution  had  permitted 
it  to  run.  The  conscience  of  the  North  had  been  profoundly 
stirred,  and  in  the  far  South  was  the  ever-present  fear  of  a 
reproduction  of  the  events  in  Hayti.  The  agitation  in  England 
moreover  was  at  last  about  to  bear  fruit  in  the  act  of  1807  for- 
bidding the  slave-trade.  In  America  it  seems  from  the  first 
to  have  been  an  understood  thing,  especially  by  the  Southern 
representatives,  that  even  if  such  an  act  passed  it  would  be 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES      85 

only  irregularly  enforced,  and  the  debates  were  concerned 
rather  with  the  disposal  of  illegally  imported  Africans  and 
with  the  punishment  of  those  concerned  in  the  importation 
than  with  the  proper  limitation  of  the  traffic  by  water.*  On 
March  2,  1807,  the  act  was  passed  forbidding  the  slave-trade 
after  the  close  of  the  year.  In  course  of  time  it  came  very 
near  to  being  a  dead  letter,  as  may  be  seen  from  presidential 
messages,  reports  of  cabinet  officers,  letters  of  collectors  of 
revenue,  letters  of  district  attorneys,  reports  of  committees 
of  Congress,  reports  of  naval  commanders,  statements  on  the 
floor  of  Congress,  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  and  the  com- 
plaints of  home  and  foreign  anti-slavery  societies.  Fernandina 
and  Galveston  were  only  two  of  the  most  notorious  ports  for 
smuggling.  A  regular  chain  of  posts  was  established  from 
the  head  of  St.  Mary's  River  to  the  upper  country,  and  through 
the  Indian  nation,  by  means  of  which  the  Negroes  were  trans- 
ferred to  every  part  of  the  country. f  If  dealers  wished  to 
form  a  caravan  they  would  give  an  Indian  alarm,  so  that 
the  woods  might  be  less  frequented,  and  if  pursued  in  Georgia 
they  would  escape  into  Florida.  One  small  schooner  con- 
tained one  hundred  and  thirty  souls.  "They  were  almost 
packed  into  a  small  space,  between  a  floor  laid  over  the  water- 
casks  and  the  deck — not  near  three  feet — insufficient  for  them 
to  sit  upright — and  so  close  that  chafing  against  each  other 
their  bones  pierced  the  skin  and  became  galled  and  ulcerated 
by  the  motion  of  the  vessel."  Many  American  vessels  were 
engaged  in  the  trade  under  Spanish  colors,  and  the  traffic  to 
Africa  was  pursued  with  uncommon  vigor  at  Havana,  the 
crews  of  vessels  being  made  up  of  men  of  all  nations,  who 
were  tempted  by  the  high  wages  to  be  earned.  Evidently  offi- 
cials were  negligent  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  but  even 
if  offenders  were  apprehended  it  did  not  necessarily  follow 
that  they  would  receive  effective  punishment.  President  Madi- 
son in  his  message  of  December  5,  18 10,  said,  "It  appears  that 
American  citizens  are  instrumental  in  carrying  on  a-  traffic  in 
enslaved  Africans,  equally  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  humanity, 
and  in  defiance  of  those  of  their  own  country" ;  and  on  Janu- 

*  See  DuBois,  95,  ff. 

tNiles's  Register,  XIV,  176  (May  2,  1818). 


86      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

^  ary  7,  1819,  the  Register  of  the  Treasury  made  to  the  House 
"^  the  amazing  report  that  "it  doth  not  appear,  from  an  examina- 
tion of  the  records  of  this  office,  and  particularly  of  the  ac- 
counts (to  the  date  of  their  last  settlement)  of  the  collectors 
of  the  customs,  and  of  the  several  marshals  of  the  United 
States,  that  any  forfeitures  had  been  incurred  under  the  said 
act."  A  supplementary  and  compromising  and  ineffective  act 
of  18 18  sought  to  concentrate  efforts  against  smuggling  by 
encouraging  informers;  and  one  of  the  following  year  that 
authorized  the  President  to  "make  such  regulations  and  ar- 
rangements as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  the  safe  keeping, 
support,  and  removal  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States" 
of  recaptured  Africans,  and  that  bore  somewhat  more  fruit, 
was  in  large  measure  due  to  the  colonization  movement  and 
of  importance  in  connection  with  the  founding  of  Liberia. 

(Thus,  while  the  formal  closing  of  the  slave-trade  might  seem 
to  be  a  great  step  forward,  the  laxness  with  which  the  decree 
was  enforced  places  it  definitely  in  the  period  of  reaction. 


$ 


Gabriel's  Insurrection  and  the  Rise  of  the  Negro  Problem 


Gabriel's  insurrection  of  1800  was  by  no  means  the  most 
formidable  revolt  that  the  Southern  states  witnessed.  In  de- 
sign it  certainly  did  not  surpass  the  scope  of  the  plot  of  Den- 
mark Vesey  twenty-two  years  later,  and  in  actual  achieve- 
ment it  was  insignificant  when  compared  not  only  with  Nat 
Turner's  insurrection  but  even  with  the  uprisings  sixty  years 
before.  At  the  last  moment  in  fact  a  great  storm  that  came 
up  made  the  attempt  to  execute  the  plan  a  miserable  failure. 
Nevertheless  coming  as  it  did  so  soon  after  the  revolution  in 
//  Hayti,  and  giving  evidence  of  young  and  unselfish  leadership, 
/    the  plot  was  regarded  as  of  extraordinary  significance. 

Gabriel  himself  *  was  an  intelligent  slave  only  twenty-four 

years   old,   and   his   chief   assistant   was   Jack   Bowler,   aged 

twenty-eight.     Throughout  the  summer  of  1800  he  matured 

his  plan,  holding  meetings  at  which  a  brother  named  Martin 

/    interpreted  various  texts   from   Scripture  as  bearing  on  the 

}    situation  of  the   Negroes.     His   insurrection  was  finally   set 

*  His  full  name  was  Gabriel  Prosser. 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES      87 

for  the  first  day  of  September.  It  was  well  planned.  The 
rendezvous  was  to  be  a  brook  six  miles  from  Richmond.  Un- 
der cover  of  night  the  force  of  1,100  was  to  march  in  three 
columns  on  the  city,  then  a  town  of  8,000  inhabitants,  the  right 
wing  to  seize  the  penitentiary  building  which  had  just  been 
converted  into  an  arsenal,  while  the  left  took  possession  of 
the  powder-house.  These  two  columns  were  to  be  armed  with 
clubs,  and  while  they  were  doing  their  work  the  central  force, 
armed  with  muskets,  knives,  and  pikes,  was  to  begin  the 
carnage,  none  being  spared  except  the  French,  whom  it  is 
significant  that  the  Negroes  favored.  In  Richmond  at  the 
time  there  were  not  more  than  four  or  five  hundred  men  with 
about  thirty  muskets ;  but  in  the  arsenal  were  several  thousand 
guns,  and  the  powder-house  was  well  stocked.  Seizure  of  the 
mills  was  to  guarantee  the  insurrectionists  a  food  supply;  and 
meanwhile  in  the  country  districts  were  the  new  harvests  of 
corn,  and  flocks  and  herds  were  fat  in  the  fields. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  uprising  Virginia  witnessed 
such  a  storm  as  she  had  not  seen  in  years.  Bridges  were 
carried  away,  and  roads  and  plantations  completely  sub- 
merged. Brook  Swamp,  the  strategic  point  for  the  Negroes, 
was  inundated ;  and  the  country  Negroes  could  not  get  into  the 
city,  nor  could  those  in  the  city  get  out  to  the  place  of  ren- 
dezvous. The  force  of  more  than  a  thousand  dwindled  to 
three  hundred,  and  these,  almost  paralyzed  by  fear  and  super- 
stition, were  dismissed.  Meanwhile  a  slave  who  did  not  wish 
to  see  his  master  killed  divulged  the  plot,  and  all  Richmond  was 
soon  in  arms. 

A  troop  of  United  States  cavalry  was  ordered  to  the  city 
and  arrests  followed  quickly.  Three  hundred  dollars  was  of- 
fered by  Governor  Monroe  for  the  arrest  of  Gabriel,  and  as 
much  more  for  Jack  Bowler.  Bowler  surrendered,  but  it 
took  weeks  to  find  Gabriel.  Six  men  were  convicted  and  con- 
demned to  be  executed  on  September  12,  and  five  more  on 
September  18.  Gabriel  was  finally  captured  on  September  24 
at  Norfolk  on  a  vessel  that  had  come  from  Richmond ;  he  was 
convicted  on  October  3  and  executed  on  October  7.  He  showed 
no  disposition  to  dissemble  as  to  his  own  plan;  at  the  same 
time  he  said  not  one  word  that  incriminated  anybody  else. 


88      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

After  him  twenty-four  more  men  were  executed ;  then  it  began 
to  appear  that  some  "mistakes"  had  been  made  and  the  kill- 
ing ceased.  About  the  time  of  this  uprising  some  Negroes 
were  also  assembled  for  an  outbreak  in  Suffolk  County ;  there 
were  alarms  in  Petersburg  and  in  the  country  near  Edenton, 
N.  C. ;  and  as  far  away  as  Charleston  the  excitement  was  in- 
tense. 

There  were  at  least  three  other  Negro  insurrections  of  im- 
portance in  the  period  1790- 1820.  When  news  came  of  the  up- 
rising of  the  slaves  in  Santo  Domingo  in  1791,  the  Negroes 
in  Louisiana  planned  a  similar  effort.*  They  might  have 
succeeded  better  if  they  had  not  disagreed  as  to  the  hour  of 
the  outbreak,  when  one  of  them  informed  the  commandant. 
As  a  punishment  twenty-three  of  the  slaves  were  hanged  along 
the  banks  of  the  river  and  their  corpses  left  dangling  for 
days;  but  three  white  men  who  assisted  them  and  who  were 
really  the  most  guilty  of  all,  were  simply  sent  out  of  the  col- 
ony. In  Camden,  S.  C,  on  July  4,  18 16,  some  other  Negroes 
risked  all  for  independence.!  On  various  pretexts  men  from 
the  country  districts  were  invited  to  the  town  on  the  appointed 
night,  and  different  commands  were  assigned,  all  except  that 
of  commander-in-chief,  which  position  was  to  be  given  to 
him  who  first  forced  the  gates  of  the  arsenal.  Again  the  plot 
was  divulged  by  "a  favorite  and  confidential  slave,"  of  whom 
we  are  told  that  the  state  legislature  purchased  the  freedom, 
settling  upon  him  a  pension  for  life.  About  six  of  the  lead- 
ers were  executed.  On  or  about  May  1,  18 19,  there  was  a 
plot  to  destroy  the  city  of  Augusta,  Ga.t  The  insurrection- 
ists were  to  assemble  at  Beach  Island,  proceed  to  Augusta, 
set  fire  to  the  place,  and  then  destroy  the  inhabitants.  Guards 
were  posted,  and  a  white  man  who  did  not  answer  when  hailed 
was  shot  and  fatally  wounded.  A  Negro  named  Coot  was 
tried  as  being  at  the  head  of  the  conspiracy  and  sentenced 
to  be  executed  a  few  days  later.  Other  trials  followed  his. 
Not  a  muscle  moved  when  the  verdict  was  pronounced  upon 
him. 

*Gayarre:   History  of  Louisiana,  III,  355. 
f  Holland  :    Refutation  of  Calumnies. 
tNiles's  Register,  XVI,  213  (May  22,  1819). 


THE  NEW  WEST,  SOUTH,  AND  WEST  INDIES      89 

The  deeper  meaning  of  such  events  as  these  could  not  es- 
cape the  discerning.     More  than  one  patriot  had  to  wonder 
just  whither  the  country  was  drifting.     Already  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  ultimate  problem  transcended  the  mere  ques- 
tion of  slavery,  and  many  knew  that  human  beings  could  not 
always  be  confined  to  an  artificial  status.     Throughout  the 
period   the  slave-trade  seemed  to  flourish  without  any  real 
check,  and  it  was  even  accentuated  by  the  return  to  power 
of  the  old  royalist  houses  of  Europe  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon. 
Meanwhile  it  was  observed  that  slave  labor  was  driving  out 
of  the  South  the  white  man  of  small  means,  and  antagonism 
between  the  men  of  the  "up-country"  and  the  seaboard  cap- 
italists was  brewing.    The  ordinary  social  life  of  the  Negro  in 
the  South  left  much  to  be  desired,  and  conditions  were  not 
improved  by  the  rapid  increase.    As  for  slavery  itself,  no  one 
could  tell  when  or  where  or  how  the  system  would  end;  all 
only  knew  that  it  was  developing  apace :  and  meanwhile  there 
was  the  sinister  possibility  of  the  alliance  of  the  Negro  and 
the  Indian.    Sincere  plans  of  gradual  abolition  were  advanced 
in  the  South  as  well  as  the  North,  but  in  the  lower  section  they 
seldom  got  more  than  a  respectful  hearing.    In  his  "Disserta- 
tion on  Slavery,  with  a  Proposal  for  the  Gradual  Abolition  of 
it  in  the  State  of  Virginia,"  St.  George  Tucker,  a  professor 
of  law  in  the  University  of  William  and  Mary,  and  one  of  the 
judges  of  the  General  Court  of  Virginia,  in  1796  advanced  a 
plan  by  which  he  figured  that  after  sixty  years  there  would  be 
only  one-third  as  many  slaves  as  at  first.     At  this  distance 
his  proposal  seems  extremely  conservative;  at  the  time,  how- 
ever, it  was  laid  on  the  table  by  the  Virginia  House  of  Dele- 
gates, and  from  the  Senate  the  author  received  merely  "a  civil 
acknowledgment." 

Two  men  of  the  period — widely  different  in  temper  and  tone, 
but  both  earnest  seekers  after  truth — looked  forward  to  the 
future  with  foreboding,  one  with  the  eye  of  the  scientist,  the 
other  with  the  vision  of  the  seer.  Hezekiah  Niles  had  full 
sympathy  with  the  groping  and  striving  of  the  South;  but  he 
insisted  that  slavery  must  ultimately  be  abolished  throughout 
the  country,  that  the  minds  of  the  slaves  should  be  exalted, 
and  that  reasonable  encouragement  should  be  given  free  Ne- 


oo      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

groes.*  Said  he :  "We  are  ashamed  of  the  thing  we  practice; 
.  .  .  there  is  no  attribute  of  heaven  that  takes  part  with  us, 
and  we  know  it.  And  in  the  contest  that  must  come  and  will 
come,  there  will  be  a  heap  of  sorrows  such  as  the  world  has 
rarely  seen."  f 

On  the  other  hand  rose  Lorenzo  Dow,  the  foremost  itinerant 
preacher  of  the  time,  the  first  Protestant  who  expounded  the 
gospel  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  and  a  reformer  who  at 
the  very  moment  that  cotton  was  beginning  to  be  supreme,  pre- 
sumed to  tell  the  South  that  slavery  was  wrong. J  Everywhere 
he  arrested  attention — with  his  long  hair,  his  harsh  voice, 
and  his  wild  gesticulation  startling  all  conservative  hearers. 
But  he  was  made  in  the  mold  of  heroes.  In  his  lifetime  he 
traveled  not  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  miles,  preach- 
ing to  more  people  than  any  other  man  of  his  time.  Several 
times  he  went  to  Canada,  once  to  the  West  Indies,  and  three 
times  to  England,  everywhere  drawing  great  crowds  about 
him.  In  A  Cry  from  the  Wilderness  he  more  than  once  clothed 
his  thought  in  enigmatic  garb,  but  the  meaning  was  always 
ultimately  clear.  At  this  distance,  when  slavery  and  the  Civil 
War  are  alike  viewed  in  the  perspective,  the  words  of  the 
oracle  are  almost  uncanny :  "In  the  rest  of  the  Southern  states 
the  influence  of  these  Foreigners  will  be  known  and  felt  in  its 
time,  and  the  seeds  from  the  Hory  Alliance  and  the  Decapi- 
gandi,  who  have  a  hand  in  those  grades  of  Generals, 
from  the  Inquisitor  to  the  Vicar  General  and  down  ...!!! 
|W  The  STRUGGLE  will  be  DREADFUL!  the  CUP  will 
be  BITTER !  and  when  the  agony  is  over,  those  who  survive 
may  see  better  days!    FAREWELL!" 

*  Register,  XVI,  177  (May  8,  1819). 

Ilbid.,  XVI,  213  (May  22,  1819). 

t  For  full  study  see  article  "Lorenzo  Dow,"  in  Methodist  Review  and 
Journal  of  Negro  History,  July,  1916,  the  same  being  included  in  Africa 
and  the  War,  New  York,  1918. 


CHAPTER  V 

INDIAN    AND    NEGRO 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  chapter  to  give  a  his- 
tory of  the  Seminole  Wars,  or  even  to  trace  fully  the  connec- 
tion of  the  Negro  with  these  contests.  We  do  hope  to  show 
at  least,  however,  that  the  Negro  was  more  important  than 
anything  else  as  an  immediate  cause  of  controversy,  though  the 
general  pressure  of  the  white  man  upon  the  Indian  would  in 
time  of  course  have  made  trouble  in  any  case.  Strange  paral- 
lels constantly  present  themselves,  and  incidentally  it  may  be 
seen  that  the  policy  of  the  Government  in  force  in  other  and 
even  later  years  with  reference  to  the  Negro  was  at  this  time 
also  very  largely  applied  in  the  case  of  the  Indian. 

i.     Creek,  Seminole,  and  Negro  to  181/ :  The  War  of  18 12 

On  August  7,  1786,  the  Continental  Congress  by  a  definite 
and  far-reaching  ordinance  sought  to  regulate  for  the  future 
the  whole  conduct  of  Indian  affairs.  Two  great  districts  were 
formed,  one  including  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  and 
west  of  the  Hudson,  and  the  other  including  that  south  of 
the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi;  and  for  anything  per- 
taining to  the  Indian  in  each  of  these  two  great  tracts  a  super- 
intendent was  appointed.  As  affecting  the  Negro  the  southern 
district  was  naturally  of  vastly  more  importance  than  the 
northern.  In  the  eastern  portion  of  this,  mainly  in  what  are 
now  Georgia,  eastern  Tennessee,  and  eastern  Alabama,  were 
the  Cherokees  and  the  great  confederacy  of  the  Creeks,  while 
toward  the  west,  in  the  present  Mississippi  and  western  Ala- 
bama, were  the  Chickasaws  and  the  Choctaws.  Of  Musk- 
hogean  stock,  and  originally  a  part  of  the  Creeks,  were  the 
Seminoles  ("runaways"),  who  about  1750,  under  the  leader- 

91 


92       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ship  of  a  great  chieftain,  SecofTee,  separated  from  the  main 
confederacy,  which  had  its  center  in  southwest  Georgia  just 
a  little  south  of  Columbus,  and  overran  the  peninsula  of 
Florida.  In  1808  came  another  band  under  Micco  Had  jo  to 
the  present  site  of  Tallahassee.  The  Mickasukie  tribe  was 
already  on  the  ground  in  the  vicinity  of  this  town,  and  at  first 
its  members  objected  to  the  newcomers,  who  threatened  to 
take  their  lands  from  them;  but  at  length  all  abode  peace- 
ably together  under  the  general  name  of  Seminoles.  About 
18 10  these  people  had  twenty  towns,  the  chief  ones  being 
Mikasuki  and  Tallahassee.  From  the  very  first  they  had  re- 
ceived occasional  additions  from  the  Yemassee,  who  had  been 
driven  out  of  South  Carolina,  and  of  fugitive  Negroes. 

By  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  all  along  the  frontier 
the  Indian  had  begun  to  feel  keenly  the  pressure  of  the  white 
man,  and  in  his  struggle  with  the  invader  he  recognized  in 
>  the  oppressed  Negro  a  natural  ally.     Those  Negroes  who  by 
any  chance  became  free  were  welcomed  by  the  Indians,  fugi- 
tives from  bondage  found  refuge  with  them,  and  while  In- 
dian chiefs  commonly  owned  slaves,  the  variety  of  servitude 
was   very   different   from  that  under  the  white  man.     The 
Negroes  were  comparatively  free,  and  intermarriage  was  fre- 
quent ;  thus  a  mulatto  woman  who  fled  from  bondage  married 
a  chief  and  became  the  mother  of  a  daughter  who  in  course 
of  time  became  the  wife  of  the  famous  Osceola.     This  very 
close  connection  of  the  Negro  with  the  family  life  of  the 
Indian  was  the  determining  factor  in  the  resistance  of  the 
Seminoles  to  the  demands  of  the  agents  of  the  United  States, 
and  a  reason,  stronger  even  than  his  love  for  his  old  hunting- 
ground,  for  his  objection  to  removal  to  new  lands  beyond  the 
Mississippi.     Very  frequently  the  Indian  could  not  give  up 
his   Negroes  without  seeing  his  own  wife  and  children  led 
away  into  bondage ;  and  thus  to  native  courage  and  pride  was 
added  the  instinct  of  a  father  for  the  preservation  of  his  own. 
In  the  two  wars  between  the  Americans  and  the  English  it 
was  but  natural  that  the  Indian  should  side  with  the  English, 
and  it  was  in  some  measure  but  a  part  of  the  game  that  he 
should  receive  little  consideration  at  the  hands  of  the  victor. 
In  the  politics  played  by  the  English  and  the  French,   the 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  93 

English  and  the  Spaniards,  and  finally  between  the  Americans 
and  all  Europeans,  the  Indian  was  ever  the  loser.    In  the  very 
early  years  of  the  Carolina  colonies,  some  effort  was  made  to 
enslave  the  Indians;  but  such  servants  soon  made  their  way 
to  the  Indian  country,  and  it  was  not  long  before  they  taught 
the  Negroes  to  do  likewise.     This  constant  escape  of  slaves, 
with  its  attendant  difficulties,  largely  accounted  for  the  estab- 
lishing of  the  free  colony  of  Georgia  between  South  Carolina 
and  the  Spanish  possession,  Florida.  It  was  soon  evident,  how- 
ever, that  the  problem  had  been  aggravated  rather  than  set- 
tled.    When  Congress  met  in  1776  it  received  from  Georgia 
a  communication  setting  forth  the  need  of  "preve*w.ing  slaves 
from  deserting  their  masters";  and  as  soon  as  the  Federal 
Government   was   organized   in    1789   it   received   also   from 
Georgia  an  urgent  request  for  protection  from  the  Creeks,  who 
were  charged  with  various  ravages,  and  among  other  docu- 
ments presented  was  a  list  of  one  hundred  and  ten  Negroes 
who  were  said  to  have  left  their  masters  during  the  Revolu- 
tion and  to  have  found  refuge  among  the  Creeks.     Meanwhile 
by  various  treaties,  written  and  unwritten,  the  Creeks  were 
being  forced  toward  the  western  line  of  the  state,  and  in  any 
agreement  the  outstanding  stipulation  was  always  for  the  re- 
turn of  fugitive  slaves.     For  a  number  of  years  the  Creeks 
retreated  without  definitely  organized  resistance.    In  the  course 
of  the  War  of  18 12,  however,  moved  by  the  English  and  by 
a  visit  from  Tecumseh,  they  suddenly  rose,  and  on  August  30, 
1813,  under  the  leadership  of  Weathersford,  they  attacked 
Fort  Mims,  a  stockade  thirty-five  miles  north  of  Mobile.    The 
five  hundred  and  fifty-three  men,  women,  and  children  in  this 
place  were  almost  completely  massacred.     Only  fifteen  white 
persons  escaped  by  hiding  in  the  woods,  a  number  of  Negroes 
being  taken   prisoner.      This   occurrence   spurred   the   whole 
Southwest  to  action.     Volunteers  were  called   for,  and   the 
Tennessee  legislature  resolved  to  exterminate  the  whole  tribe. 
Andrew  Jackson  with  Colonel  Coffee  administered  decisive  de- 
feats at  Talladega  and  Tohopeka  or  Horseshoe  Bend  on  the 
Tallapoosa  River,  and  the  Creeks  were  forced  to  sue  for  peace. 
By  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson  (August  9,  1814)  the  future 


94      SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

president,  now  a  major  general  in  the  regular  army  and  in 
command  at  Mobile,  demanded  that  the  unhappy  nation  give 
up  more  than  half  of  its  land  as  indemnity  for  the  cost  of 
the  war,  that  it  hold  no  communication  with  a  Spanish  garri- 
son or  town,  that  it  permit  the  necessary  roads  to  be  made  or 
forts  to  be  built  in  any  part  of  the  territory,  and  that  it 
surrender  the  prophets  who  had  instigated  the  war.  This  last 
demand  was  ridiculous,  or  only  for  moral  effect,  for  the  so- 
called  prophets  had  already  been  left  dead  on  the  field  of  battle. 
The  Creeks  were  quite  broken,  however,  and  Jackson  passed 
on  to  fame  and  destiny  at  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans,  Janu- 
ary 8,  1815.  In  April  of  this  year  he  was  made  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Southern  Division.*  It  soon  developed  that  his 
chief  task  in  this  capacity  was  to  reckon  with  the  Seminoles. 
On  the  Appalachicola  River  the  British  had  rebuilt  an  old 
fort,  calling  it  the  British  Post  on  the  Appalachicola.  Early 
in  the  summer  of  18 15  the  commander,  Nicholls,  had  occasion 
to  go  to  London,  and  he  took  with  him  his  troops,  the  chief 
Francis,  and  several  Creeks,  leaving  in  the  fort  seven  hundred 
and  sixty-three  barrels  of  cannon  powder,  twenty-five  hundred 
muskets,  and  numerous  pistols  and  other  weapons  of  war. 
The  Negroes  from  Georgia  who  had  come  to  the  vicinity,  who 
numbered  not  less  than  a  thousand,  and  who  had  some  well 
kept  farms  up  and  down  the  banks  of  the  river,  now  took 
charge  of  the  fort  and  made  it  their  headquarters.  They  were 
joined  by  some  Creeks,  and  the  so-called  Negro  Fort  soon 
caused  itself  to  be  greatly  feared  by  any  white  people  who 
happened  to  live  near.  Demands  on  the  Spanish  governor 
for  its  suppression  were  followed  by  threats  of  the  use  of  the 
soldiery  of  the  United  States;  and  General  Gaines,  under 
orders  in  the  section,  wrote  to  Jackson  asking  authority  to 
build  near  the  boundary  another  post  that  might  be  used  as 

*  In  his  official  capacity  Jackson  issued  two  addresses  which  have  an 
important  place  in  the  history  of  the  Negro  soldier.  From  his  head- 
quarters at  Mobile,  September  21,  1814,  he  issued  an  appeal  "To  the  Free 
Colored  Inhabitants  of  Louisiana,"  offering  them  an  honorable  part  in 
the  war,  and  this  was  later  followed  by  a  "Proclamation  to  the  Free 
People  of  Color"  congratulating  them  on  their  achievement.  Both 
addresses  are  accessible  in  many  books. 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  95 

the  base  for  any  movement  that  had  as  its  aim  to  overawe  the 
Negroes.  Jackson  readily  complied  with  the  request,  saying, 
"I  have  no  doubt  that  this  fort  has  been  established  by  some 
villains  for  the  purpose  of  murder,  rapine,  and  plunder,  and 
that  it  ought  to  be  blown  up  regardless  of  the  ground  it 
stands  on.  If  you  have  come  to  the  same  conclusion,  destroy 
it,  and  restore  the  stolen  Negroes  and  property  to  their  right- 
ful owners."  Gaines  accordingly  built  Fort  Scott  not  far  from 
where  the  Flint  and  the  Chattahoochee  join  to  form  the  Ap- 
palachicola.  It  was  necessary  for  Gaines  to  pass  the  Negro 
Fort  in  bringing  supplies  to  his  own  men;  and  on  July  17, 
18 16,  the  boats  of  the  Americans  were  within  range  of  the 
fort  and  opened  fire.  There  was  some  preliminary  shooting, 
and  then,  since  the  walls  were  too  stubborn  to  be  battered  down 
by  a  light  fire,  "a  ball  made  red-hot  in  the  cook's  galley  was  put 
in  the  gun  and  sent  screaming  over  the  wall  and  into  the  maga- 
zine. The  roar,  the  shock,  the  scene  that  followed,  may  be 
imagined,  but  not  described.  Seven  hundred  barrels  of  gun- 
powder tore  the  earth,  the  fort,  and  all  the  wretched  creatures 
in  it  to  fragments.  Two  hundred  and  seventy  men,  women, 
and  children  died  on  the  spot.  Of  sixty- four  taken  out  alive, 
the  greater  number  died  soon  after."  * 

The  Seminoles — in  the  West  more  and  more  identified  with 
the  Creeks — were  angered  by  their  failure  to  recover  the  lands 
lost  by  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson  and  also  by  the  building 
of  Fort  Scott.  One  settlement,  Fowltown,  fifteen  miles  east 
of  Fort  Scott,  was  especially  excited  and  in  the  fall  of  1817 
sent  a  warning  to  the  Americans  "not  to  cross  or  cut  a  stick 
of  timber  on  the  east  side  of  the  Flint."  The  warning  was 
regarded  as  a  challenge ;  Fowltown  was  taken  on  a  morning  in 
November,  and  the  Seminole  Wars  had  begun. 

2.     First  Seminole  War  and  the  Treaties  of  Indian  Spring  and 

Fort  Moultrie 

In  the  course  of  the  First  Seminole  War  (1817-18)  Jackson 
ruthlessly  laid  waste  the  towns  of  the  Indians;  he  also  took 
Pensacola,  and  he  awakened  international  difficulties  by  his 

*McMaster,  IV,  431. 


96       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

rather  summary  execution  of  two  British  subjects,  Arbuthnot 
and  Ambrister,  who  were  traders  to  the  Indians  and  sustained 
generally  pleasant  relations  with  them.  For  his  conduct,  es- 
pecially in  this  last  instance,  he  was  severely  criticized  in 
Congress,  but  it  is  significant  of  his  rising  popularity  that  no 
formal  vote  of  censure  could  pass  against  him.  On  the  cession 
of  Florida  to  the  United  States  he  was  appointed  territorial 
governor;  but  he  served  for  a  brief  term  only.  As  early  as 
1822  he  was  nominated  for  the  presidency  by  the  legislature 
of  Tennessee,  and  in  1823  he  was  sent  to  the  United  States 
Senate. 

Of  special  importance  in  the  history  of  the  Creeks  about 
this  time  was  the  treaty  of  Indian  Spring,  of  January  8,  182 1, 
an  iniquitous  agreement  in  the  signing  of  which  bribery  and 
firewater  were  more  than  usually  present.  By  this  the  Creeks 
ceded  to  the  United  States,  for  the  benefit  of  Georgia,  five 
million  acres  of  their  most  valuable  land.  In  cash  they  were 
to  receive  $200,000,  in  payments  extending  over  fourteen  years. 
The  United  States  Government  moreover  was  to  hold  $250,000 
as  a  fund  from  which  the  citizens  of  Georgia  were  to  be  re- 
imbursed for  any  "claims"  (for  runaway  slaves  of  course) 
that  the  citizens  of  the  state  had  against  the  Creeks  prior  to- 
the  year  1802.*  In  the  actual  execution  of  this  agreement  a 
slave  was  frequently  estimated  at  two  or  three  times  his  real 
value,  and  the  Creeks  were  expected  to  pay  whether  the  fugi- 
tive was  with  them  or  not.  All  possible  claims,  however, 
amounted  to  $101,000.  This  left  $149,000  of  the  money  in 
the  hands  of  the  Government.  This  sum  was  not  turned  over 
to  the  Indians,  as  one  might  have  expected,  but  retained  until 
1834,  when  the  Georgia  citizens  interested  petitioned  for  a 
division.  The  request  was  referred  to  the  Commission  on 
Indian  Affairs,  and  the  chairman,  Gilmer  of  Georgia,  was 
in  favor  of  dividing  the  money  among  the  petitioners  as  com- 
pensation for  "the  offspring  which  the  slaves  would  have 
borne  had  they  remained  in  bondage."  This  suggestion  was 
rejected  at  the  time,  but  afterwards  the  division  was  made 

*  See  J.  R.  Giddings:  The  Exiles  of  Florida,  63-66;  also  speech  in 
House  of  Representatives  February  9,  1841. 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  97 

nevertheless ;  and  history  records  few  more  flagrant  violations 
of  all  principles  of  honor  and  justice. 

The  First  Seminole  War,  while  in  some  ways  disastrous  to 
the  Indians,  was  in  fact  not  much  more  than  the  preliminary 
skirmish  of  a  conflict  that  was  not  to  cease  until  1842.  In  gen- 
eral the  Indians,  mindful  of  the  ravages  of  the  War  of  18 12, 
did  not  fully  commit  themselves  and  bided  their  time.  They 
were  in  fact  so  much  under  cover  that  they  led  the  Americans 
to  underestimate  their  real  numbers.  When  the  cession  of 
Florida  was  formally  completed,  however  (July  17,  1821),  they 
were  found  to  be  on  the  very  best  spots  of  land  in  the  terri- 
tory. On  May  20,  1822,  Colonel  Gad  Humphreys  was  ap- 
pointed agent  to  them,  William  P.  Duval  as  governor  of  the 
territory  being  ex-officio  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs.  Al- 
together the  Indians  at  this  time,  according  to  the  official 
count,  numbered  1,594  men,  1,357  women,  and  993  children, 
a  total  of  3,944,  with  150  Negro  men  and  650  Negro  women 
and  children.*  In  the  interest  of  these  people  Humphreys 
labored  faithfully  for  eight  years,  and  not  a  little  of  the  com- 
parative quiet  in  his  period  of  service  is  to  be  credited  to 
his  own  sympathy,  good  sense,  and  patience. 

In  the  spring  of  1823  the  Indians  were  surprised  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  a  treaty  that  would  definitely  limit  their  boundaries 
and  outline  their  future  relations  with  the  white  man.  The 
representative  chiefs  had  no  desire  for  a  conference,  were  ex- 
ceedingly reluctant  to  meet  the  commissioners,  and  finally  came 
to  the  meeting  prompted  only  by  the  hope  that  such  terms 
might  be  arrived  at  as  would  permanently  guarantee  them  in 
the  peaceable  possession  of  their  homes.  Over  the  very  strong 
protest  of  some  of  them  a  treaty  was  signed  at  Fort  Moultrie, 
on  the  coast  five  miles  below  St.  Augustine,  September  18, 
1823,  William  P.  Duval,  James  Gadsden,  and  Bernard  Segui 
being  the  representatives  of  the  United  States.  By  this  treaty 
we  learn  that  the  Indians,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they  have 
"thrown  themselves  on,  and  have  promised  to  continue  under, 
the  protection  of  the  United  States,  and  of  no  other  nation, 
power,  or  sovereignty;  and  in  consideration  of  the  promises 

*  Sprague,  19. 


98       SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  stipulations  hereinafter  made,  do  cede  and  relinquish  all 
claim  or  title  which  they  have  to  the  whole  territory  of  Florida, 
with  the  exception  of  such  district  of  country  as  shall  herein 
be  allotted  to  them."  They  are  to  have  restricted  boundaries, 
the  extreme  point  of  which  is  nowhere  to  be  nearer  than 
fifteen  miles  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  United  States 
promises  to  distribute,  as  soon  as  the  Indians  are  settled  on 
their  new  land,  under  the  direction  of  their  agent,  "implements 
of  husbandry,  and  stock  of  cattle  and  hogs  to  the  amount  of 
six  thousand  dollars,  and  an  annual  sum  of  five  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year  for  twenty  successive  years";  and  "to  restrain  and 
prevent  all  white  persons  from  hunting,  settling,  or  otherwise 
intruding"  upon  the  land  set  apart  for  the  Indians,  though 
any  American  citizen,  lawfully  authorized,  is  to  pass  and  re- 
pass within  the  said  district  and  navigate  the  waters  thereof 
"without  any  hindrance,  toll  or  exactions  from  said  tribes." 
For  facilitating  removal  and  as  compensation  for  any  losses 
or  inconvenience  sustained,  the  United  States  is  to  furnish 
rations  of  corn,  meat,  and  salt  for  twelve  months,  with  a 
special  appropriation  of  $4,500  for  those  who  have  made  im- 
provements, and  $2,000  more  for  the  facilitating  of  transporta- 
tion. The  agent,  sub-agent,  and  interpreter  are  to  reside  within 
the  Indian  boundary  "to  watch  over  the  interests  of  said 
tribes" ;  and  the  United  States  further  undertake  "as  an  evi- 
dence of  their  humane  policy  towards  said  tribes"  to  allow 
$1,000  a  year  for  twenty  years  for  the  establishment  of  a 
school  and  $1,000  a  year  for  the  same  period  for  the  support 
of  a  gun-  and  blacksmith.  Of  supreme  importance  is  Article  7 : 
"The  chiefs  and  warriors  aforesaid,  for  themselves  and  tribes, 
stipulate  to  be  active  and  vigilant  in  the  preventing  the  re- 
treating to,  or  passing  through,  the  district  of  country  assigned 
them,  of  any  absconding  slaves,  or  fugitives  from  justice;  and 
further  agree  to  use  all  necessary  exertions  to  apprehend  and 
deliver  the  same  to  the  agent,  who  shall  receive  orders  to  com- 
pensate them  agreeably  to  the  trouble  and  expense  incurred." 
We  have  dwelt  at  length  upon  the  provisions  of  this  treaty 
because  it  contained  all  the  seeds  of  future  trouble  between 
the  white  man  and  the  Indian.  Six  prominent  chiefs — Nea 
Mathla,  John  Blunt,  Tuski  Ha  jo,  Mulatto  King,  Emathlochee, 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  99 

and  Econchattimico — refused  absolutely  to  sign,  and  their 
marks  were  not  won  until  each  was  given  a  special  reserva- 
tion of  from  two  to  four  square  miles  outside  the  Seminole 
boundaries.  Old  Nea  Mathla  in  fact  never  did  accept  the  treaty 
in  good  faith,  and  when  the  time  came  for  the  execution  of 
the  agreement  he  summoned  his  warriors  to  resistance.  Gov- 
ernor Duval  broke  in  upon  his  war  council,  deposed  the  war 
leaders,  and  elevated  those  who  favored  peaceful  removal. 
The  Seminoles  now  retired  to  their  new  lands,  but  Nea  Mathla 
was  driven  into  practical  exile.  He  retired  to  the  Creeks,  by 
whom  he  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  chief.  It  was  soon 
realized  by  the  Seminoles  that  they  had  been  restricted  to  some 
pine  woods  by  no  means  as  fertile  as  their  old  lands,  nor  were 
matters  made  better  by  one  or  two  seasons  of  drought.  To 
allay  their  discontent  twenty  square  miles  more,  to  the  north, 
was  given  them,  but  to  offset  this  new  cession  their  rations 
were  immediately  reduced. 

3.     From  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Moultrie  to  the  Treaty  of  Payne's 

Landing 

Now  succeeded  ten  years  of  trespassing,  of  insult,  and  of 
increasing  enmity.  Kidnapers  constantly  lurked  near  the 
Indian  possessions,  and  instances  of  injury  unredressed  in- 
creased the  bitterness  and  rancor.  Under  date  May  20,  1825, 
Humphreys  *  wrote  to  the  Indian  Bureau  that  the  white  set- 
tlers were  already  thronging  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Indian  reser- 
vation and  were  likely  to  become  troublesome.  As  to  some 
recent  disturbances,  writing  from  St.  Augustine  February  9, 
1825,  he  said:  "From  all  I  can  learn  here  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  disturbances  near  Tallahassee,  which  have  of  late  oc- 
casioned so  much  clamor,  were  brought  about  by  a  course  of 
unjustifiable  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  whites,  similar  to  that 
which  it  appears  to  be  the  object  of  the  territorial  legislature 
to  legalize.  In  fact,  it  is  stated  that  one  Indian  had  been  so 
severely  whipped  by  the  head  of  the  family  which  was  de- 
stroyed in  these  disturbances,  as  to  cause  his  death;  if  such 

*  The  correspondence  is  readily  accessible  in  Sprague,  30-37. 


ioo    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

be  the  fact,  the  subsequent  act  of  the  Indians,  however  la- 
mentable, must  be  considered  as  one  of  retaliation,  and  I  can 
not  but  think  it  is  to  be  deplored  that  they  were  afterwards 
'hunted'  with  so  unrelenting  a  revenge."  The  word  hunted 
was  used  advisedly  by  Humphreys,  for,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
when  war  was  renewed  one  of  the  common  means  of  fighting 
employed  by  the  American  officers  was  the  use  of  bloodhounds. 
Sometimes  guns  were  taken  from  the  Indians  so  that  they 
had  nothing  with  which  to  pursue  the  chase.  On  one  occasion, 
when  some  Indians  were  being  marched  to  headquarters,  a 
woman  far  advanced  in  pregnancy  was  forced  onward  with 
such  precipitancy  as  to  produce  a  premature  delivery,  which 
almost  terminated  her  life.  More  far-reaching  than  anything 
else,  however,  was  the  constant  denial  of  the  rights  of  the 
Indian  in  court  in  cases  involving  white  men.  As  Humphreys 
said,  the  great  disadvantage  under  which  the  Seminoles  la- 
bored as  witnesses  "destroyed  everything  like  equality  of 
rights."  Some  of  the  Negroes  that  they  had,  had  been  born 
among  them,  and  some  others  had  been  purchased  from  white 
men  and  duly  paid  for.  No  receipts  were  given,  however,  and 
efforts  were  frequently  made  to  recapture  the  Negroes  by 
force.  The  Indian,  conscious  of  his  rights,  protested  earnestly 
against  such  attempts  and  naturally  determined  to  resist  all 
efforts  to  wrest  from  him  his  rightfully  acquired  property. 

By  1827,  however,  the  territorial  legislature  had  begun  to 
memorialize  Congress  and  to  ask  for  the  complete  removal 
of  the  Indians.  Meanwhile  the  Negro  question  was  becoming 
more  prominent,  and  orders  from  the  Department  of  War, 
increasingly  peremptory,  were  made  on  Humphreys  for  the 
return  of  definite  Negroes.  For  Duval  and  Humphreys,  how- 
ever, who  had  actually  to  execute  the  commissions,  the  task 
was  not  always  so  easy.  Under  date  March  20,  1827,  the  for- 
mer wrote  to  the  latter:  "Many  of  the  slaves  belonging  to  the 
whites  are  now  in  the  possession  of  the  white  people;  these 
slaves  can  not  be  obtained  for  their  Indian  owners  without 
a  lawsuit,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  the  Indians  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  surrender  all  slaves  claimed  by  our  citizens  when  this 
surrender  is  not  mutual."  Meanwhile  the  annuity  began  to 
be  withheld  from  the  Indians  in  order  to  force  them  to  return 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  £  /:  ::<  101 

Negroes,  and  a  friendly  chief,  Hicks,  constantly  waited  upon 
Humphreys  only  to  find  the  agent  little  more  powerful  than 
himself.  Thus  matters  continued  through  1829  and  1830.  In 
violation  of  all  legal  procedure,  the  Indians  were  constantly 
required  to  relinquish  beforehand  property  in  their  possession 
to  settle  a  question  of  claim.  On  March  21,  1830,  Humphreys 
was  informed  that  he  was  no  longer  agent  for  the  Indians.  He 
had  been  honestly  devoted  to  the  interest  of  these  people,  but 
his  efforts  were  not  in  harmony  with  the  policy  of  the  new 
administration. 

Just  what  that  policy  was  may  be  seen  from  Jackson's  spe- 
cial message  on  Indian  affairs  of  February  22,  1831.  The 
Senate  had  asked  for  information  as  to  the  conduct  of  the 
Government  in  connection  with  the  act  of  March  30,  1802, 
"to  regulate  trade  and  intercourse  with  the  Indian  tribes  and 
to  preserve  peace  on  the  frontiers."  The  Nullification  con- 
troversy was  in  everybody's  mind,  and  already  friction  had 
arisen  between  the  new  President  and  the  abolitionists.  In 
spite  of  Jackson's  attitude  toward  South  Carolina,  his  message 
in  the  present  instance  was  a  careful  defense  of  the  whole 
theory  of  state  rights.  Nothing  in  the  conduct  of  the  Federal 
Government  toward  the  Indian  tribes,  he  insisted,  had  ever 
been  intended  to  attack  or  even  to  call  in  question  the  rights 
of  a  sovereign  state.  In  one  way  the  Southern  states  had 
seemed  to  be  an  exception.  "As  early  as  1784  the  settle- 
ments within  the  limits  of  North  Carolina  were  advanced 
farther  to  the  west  than  the  authority  of  the  state  to  enforce 
an  obedience  of  its  laws."  After  the  Revolution  the  tribes 
desolated  the  frontiers,  "Under  these  circumstances  the  first 
treaties,  in  1785  and  1790,  with  the  Cherokees,  were  con- 
cluded by  the  Government  of  the  United  States."  Nothing 
of  all  this,  said  Jackson,  had  in  any  way  affected  the  relation 
of  any  Indians  to  the  state  in  which  they  happened  to  reside, 
and  he  concluded  as  follows:  "Toward  this  race  of  people  I 
entertain  the  kindest  feelings,  and  am  not  sensible  that  the  views 
which  I  have  taken  of  their  true  interests  are  less  favorable 
to  them  than  those  which  oppose  their  emigration  to  the 
West.  Years  since  I  stated  to  them  my  belief  that  if  the  States 
chose  to  extend  their  laws  over  them  it  would  not  be  in  the 


102    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

power  of  the  Federal  Government  to  prevent  it.  My  opinion 
remains  the  same,  and  I  can  see  no  alternative  for  them  but 
that  of  their  removal  to  the  West  or  a  quiet  submission  to 
the  state  laws.  If  they  prefer  to  remove,  the  United  States 
agree  to  defray  their  expenses,  to  supply  them  the  means  of 
transportation  and  a  year's  support  after  they  reach  their  new 
homes — a  provision  too  liberal  and  kind  to  bear  the  stamp  of 
injustice.  Either  course  promises  them  peace  and  happiness, 
whilst  an  obstinate  perseverance  in  the  effort  to  maintain  their 
possessions  independent  of  the  state  authority  can  not  fail 
to  render  their  condition  still  more  helpless  and  miserable. 
Such  an  effort  ought,  therefore,  to  be  discountenanced  by  all 
who  sincerely  sympathize  in  the  fortunes  of  this  peculiar  peo- 
ple, and  especially  by  the  political  bodies  of  the  Union,  as 
calculated  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  two  Governments 
and  to  endanger  the  safety  of  the  many  blessings  which  they 
enable  us  to  enjoy." 

The  policy  thus  formally  enunciated  was  already  in  prac- 
tical operation.  In  the  closing  days  of  the  administration 
of  John  Quincy  Adams  a  delegation  came  to  Washington  to 
present  to  the  administration  the  grievances  of  the  Cherokee 
nation.  The  formal  reception  of  the  delegation  fell  to  the  lot 
of  Eaton,  the  new  Secretary  of  War.  The  Cherokees  as- 
serted that  not  only  did  they  have  no  rights  in  the  Georgia 
courts  in  cases  involving  white  men,  but  that  they  had  been 
notified  by  Georgia  that  all  laws,  usages,  and  agreements  in 
force  in  the  Indian  country  would  be  null  and  void  after  June 
i,  1830;  and  naturally  they  wanted  the  interposition  of  the 
Federal  Government.  Eaton  replied  at  great  length,  remind- 
ing the  Cherokees  that  they  had  taken  sides  with  England 
in  the  War  of  18 12,  that  they  were  now  on  American  soil  only 
by  sufferance,  and  that  the  central  government  could  not  violate 
the  rights  of  the  state  of  Georgia;  and  he  strongly  advised 
immediate  removal  to  the  West.  The  Cherokees,  quite  broken, 
acted  in  accord  with  this  advice;  and  so  in  1832  did  the  Creeks, 
to  whom  Jackson  had  sent  a  special  talk  urging  removal  as 
the  only  basis  of  Federal  protection. 

To  the  Seminoles  as  early  as  1827  overtures  for  removal 
had  been  made;  but  before  the  treaty  of  Fort  Moultrie  had 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  103 

really  become  effective  they  had  been  intruded  upon  and  they 
in  turn  had  become  more  slow  about  returning  runaway  slaves. 
From  some  of  the  clauses  in  the  treaty  of  Fort  Moultrie,  as 
some  of  the  chiefs  were  quick  to  point  out,  the  understanding 
was  that  the  same  was  to  be  in  force  for  twenty  years;  and 
they  felt  that  any  slowness  on  their  part  about  the  return  of 
Negroes  was  fully  nullified  by  the  efforts  of  the  professional 
Negro  stealers  with  whom  they  had  to  deal. 

Early  in  1832,  however,  Colonel  James  Gadsden  of  Florida 
was  directed  by  Lewis  Cass,  the  Secretary  of  War,  to  enter 
into  negotiation  for  the  removal  of  the  Indians  of  Florida. 
There  was  great  opposition  to  a  conference,  but  the  Indians 
were  finally  brought  together  at  Payne's  Landing  on  the 
Ocklawaha  River  just  seventeen  miles  from  Fort  King.  Here 
on  May  9,  1832,  was  wrested  from  them  a  treaty  which  is  of 
supreme  importance  in  the  history  of  the  Seminoles.  The  full 
text  was  as  follows : 

Treaty  of  Payne's  Landing, 
May  9,  1832 

Whereas,  a  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  the  Seminole 
nation  of  Indians  was  made  and  concluded  at  Payne's  Landing,  on 
the  Ocklawaha  River,  on  the  9th  of  May,  one  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  thirty-two,  by  James  Gadsden,  commissioner  on  the  part  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  chiefs  and  headmen  of  said  Seminole 
nation  of  Indians,  on  the  part  of  said  nation;  which  treaty  is  in  the 
words  following,  to  wit: 

The  Seminole  Indians,  regarding  with  just  respect  the  solicitude 
manifested  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  for  the  improve- 
ment of  their  condition,  by  recommending  a  removal  to  the  country 
more  suitable  to  their  habits  and  wants  than  the  one  they  at  present 
occupy  in  the  territory  of  Florida,  are  willing  that  their  confidential 
chiefs,  Jumper,  Fuch-a-lus-to-had-jo,  Charley  Emathla,  Coi-had-jo, 
Holati-Emathla,  Ya-ha-had-jo,  Sam  Jones,  accompanied  by  their 
agent,  Major  John  Phagan,  and  their  faithful  interpreter,  Abraham, 
should  be  sent,  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States,  as  early  as  con- 
venient, to  examine  the  country  assigned  to  the  Creeks,  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  should  they  be  satisfied  with  the  character  of 
the  country,  and  of  the  favorable  disposition  of  the  Creeks  to  re-unite 
with  the  Seminoles  as  one  people;  the  articles  of  the  compact  and 
agreement  herein  stipulated,  at  Payne's  Landing,  on  the  Ocklawaha 
River,  this  ninth  day  of  May,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 


104     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

two,  between  James  Gadsden,  for  and  in  behalf  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  undersigned  chiefs  and  headmen,  for  and 
in  behalf  of  the  Seminole  Indians,  shall  be  binding  on  the  respective 
parties. 

Article  I.  The  Seminole  Indians  relinquish  to  the  United  States 
all  claim  to  the  land  they  at  present  occupy  in  the  territory  of  Florida, 
and  agree  to  emigrate  to  the  country  assigned  to  the  Creeks,  west  of 
the  Mississippi  River,  it  being  understood  that  an  additional  extent 
of  country,  proportioned  to  their  numbers,  will  be  added  to  the  Creek 
territory,  and  that  the  Seminoles  will  be  received  as  a  constituent 
part  of  the  Creek  nation,  and  be  re-admitted  to  all  the  privileges  as 
a  member  of  the  same. 

Article  II.  For  and  in  consideration  of  the  relinquishment  of  claim 
in  the  first  article  of  this  agreement,  and  in  full  compensation  for  all 
the  improvements  which  may  have  been  made  on  the  lands  thereby 
ceded,  the  United  States  stipulate  to  pay  to  the  Seminole  Indians 
fifteen  thousand  four  hundred  ($15,400)  dollars,  to  be  divided  among 
the  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  several  towns,  in  a  ratio  proportioned 
to  their  population,  the  respective  proportions  of  each  to  be  paid  on 
their  arrival  in  the  country  they  consent  to  remove  to ;  it  being  under- 
stood that  their  faithful  interpreters,  Abraham  and  Cudjo,  shall 
receive  two  hundred  dollars  each,  of  the  above  sum,  in  full  remunera- 
tion of  the  improvements  to  be  abandoned  on  the  lands  now  cultivated 
by  them. 

Article  III.  The  United  States  agree  to  distribute,  as  they  arrive 
at  their  new  homes  in  the  Creek  territory,  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  a  blanket  and  a  homespun  frock  to  each  of  the  warriors, 
women  and  children,  of  the  Seminole  tribe  of  Indians. 

Article  IV.  The  United  States  agree  to  extend  the  annuity  for  the 
support  of  a  blacksmith,  provided  for  in  the  sixth  article  of  the  treaty 
at  Camp  Moultrie,  for  ten  (10)  years  beyond  the  period  therein  stip- 
ulated, and  in  addition  to  the  other  annuities  secured  under  that  treaty, 
the  United  States  agree  to  pay  the  sum  of  three  thousand  ($3,000) 
dollars  a  year  for  fifteen  (15)  years,  commencing  after  the  removal 
of  the  whole  tribe;  these  sums  to  be  added  to  the  Creek  annuities, 
and  the  whole  amount  to  be  so  divided  that  the  chiefs  and  warriors 
of  the  Seminole  Indians  may  receive  their  equitable  proportion  of  the 
same,  as  members  of  the  Creek  confederation. 

Article  V.  The  United  States  will  take  the  cattle  belonging  to  the 
Seminoles,  at  the  valuation  of  some  discreet  person,  to  be  appointed 
by  the  President,  and  the  same  shall  be  paid  for  in  money  to  the 
respective  owners,  after  their  arrival  at  their  new  homes;  or  other 
cattle,  such  as  may  be  desired,  will  be  furnished  them;  notice  being 
given  through  their  agent,  of  their  wishes  upon  this  subject,  before 
their  removal,  that  time  may  be  afforded  to  supply  the  demand. 

Article  VI.    The  Seminoles  being  anxious  to  be  relieved  from  the 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO 


105 


repeated  vexatious  demands  for  slaves,  and  other  property,  alleged 
to  have  been  stolen  and  destroyed  by  them,  so  that  they  may  remove 
unembarrassed  to  their  new  homes,  the  United  States  stipulate  to 
have  the  same  property  (properly)  investigated,  and  to  liquidate  such 
as  may  be  satisfactorily  established,  provided  the  amount  does  not 
exceed  seven  thousand  ($7,000)  dollars. 

Article  VII.  The  Seminole  Indians  will  remove  within  three  (3) 
years  after  the  ratification  of  this  agreement,  and  the  expenses  of 
their  removal  shall  be  defrayed  by  the  United  States,  and  such  sub- 
sistence shall  also  be  furnished  them,  for  a  term  not  exceeding  twelve 
(12)  months  after  their  arrival  at  their  new  residence,  as  in  the 
opinion  of  the  President  their  numbers  and  circumstances  may  re- 
quire; the  emigration  to  commence  as  early  as  practicable  in  the 
year  eighteen  hundred  and  thirty-three  (1833),  and  with  those  In- 
dians at  present  occupying  the  Big  Swamp,  and  other  parts  of  the 
country  beyond  the  limits,  as  defined  in  the  second  article  of  the 
treaty  concluded  at  Camp  Moultrie  Creek,  so  that  the  whole  of  that 
proportion  of  the  Seminoles  may  be  removed  within  the  year  afore- 
said, and  the  remainder  of  the  tribe,  in  about  equal  proportions,  dur- 
ing the  subsequent  years  of  eighteen  hundred  and  thirty-four  and 
five  (1834  and  1835). 

In  testimony  whereof,  the  commissioner,  James  Gadsden,  and  the 
undersigned  chiefs  and  head-men  of  the  Seminole  Indians,  have  here- 
unto subscribed  their  names  and  affixed  their  seals. 
Done  at  camp,  at  Payne's  Landing,  on  the  Ocklawaha  River,  in  the 
territory  of  Florida,  on  this  ninth  day  of  May,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-two,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  the  fifty-sixth. 

(Signed)       James  Gadsden  L.  S. 

Holati  Emathlar,  his  X  mark. 

Jumper,  his  X  mark. 

Fuch-ta-lus-ta-Hadjo,     his  X  mark. 

Charley  Emathla,  his  X  mark. 

Coi  Hadjo,  his  X  mark. 

Ar-pi-uck-i,  or  Sam 

Jones,  his  X  mark. 

Ya-ha-Hadjo,  his  X  mark. 

Mico-Noha,  his  X  mark. 

Tokose  Emathla,  or 

John  Hicks,  his  X  mark. 

Cat-sha-Tustenuggee,     his  X  mark. 

Holat-a-Micco,  his  X  mark. 

Hitch-it-i-Micco,  his  X  mark. 

E-na-hah,  his  X  mark. 

Ya-ha-Emathla- 

Chopco,  his  X  mark. 

Moki-his-she-lar-ni,        his  X  mark. 


Witnesses. 
Douglass  Vass,  Sec.  to  Comm. 
John  Phagan,  Agent. 
Stephen  Richards,  Interpreter. 
Abraham,    Interpreter,    his    X 

mark. 
Cudjo,  Interpreter,  his  X  mark. 
Erastus  Rodgers. 
B.  Joscan. 


106     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I,  Andrew  Jackson,  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  having  seen  and  considered  said  treaty, 
do,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  as  expressed 
by  their  resolution  of  the  eighth  day  of  April,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-four,  accept,  ratify,  and  confirm  the  same,  and 
every  clause  and  article  thereof. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States 
to  be  hereunto  affixed,  having  signed  the  same  with  my  hand. 
Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  twelfth  day  of  April,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-four,  and  of 
the  independence  of  the   United   States  of  America,  the   fifty- 
eighth. 

(Signed)     Andrew  Jackson. 
By  the  President, 
Louis  McLane,  Secretary  of  State. 

It  will  be  seen  that  by  the  terms  of  this  document  seven  chiefs 
were  to  go  and  examine  the  country  assigned  to  the  Creeks, 
and  that  they  were  to  be  accompanied  by  Major  John  Phagan, 
the  successor  of  Humphreys,  and  the  Negro  interpreter  Abra- 
ham. The  character  of  Phagan  may  be  seen  from  the  facts 
that  he  was  soon  in  debt  to  different  ones  of  the  Indians  and 
to  Abraham,  and  that  he  was  found  to  be  short  in  his  ac- 
counts. While  the  Indian  chiefs  were  in  the  West,  three  United 
States  commissioners  conferred  with  them  as  to  the  suitability 
of  the  country  for  a  future  home,  and  at  Fort  Gibson, 
Arkansas,  March  28,  1833,  they  were  beguiled  into  signing 
an  additional  treaty  in  which  occurred  the  following  sentence : 
"And  the  undersigned  Seminole  chiefs,  delegated  as  aforesaid, 
on  behalf  of  their  nation,  hereby  declare  themselves  well  satis- 
fied with  the  location  provided  for  them  by  the  commissioners, 
and  agree  that  their  nation  shall  commence  the  removal  to  their 
new  home  as  soon  as  the  government  will  make  arrangements 
for  their  emigration,  satisfactory  to  the  Seminole  nation." 
They  of  course  had  no  authority  to  act  on  their  own  initia- 
tive, and  when  all  returned  in  April,  1833,  and  Phagan  ex- 
plained what  had  happened,  the  Seminoles  expressed  them- 
selves in  no  uncertain  terms.  The  chiefs  who  had  gone  West 
denied  strenuously  that  they  had  signed  away  any  rights  to 
land,  but  they  were  nevertheless  upbraided  as  the  agents  of 
deception.     Some  of  the  old  chiefs,  of  whom  Micanopy  was 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  107 

the  highest  authority,  resolved  to  resist  the  efforts  to  dis- 
possess them;  and  John  Hicks,  who  seems  to  have  been  sub- 
stituted for  Sam  Jones  on  the  commission,  was  killed  because 
he  argued  too  strongly  for  migration.  Meanwhile  the  treaty 
of  Payne's  Landing  was  ratified  by  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  and  proclaimed  as  in  force  by  President  Jackson  April 
12,  1834,  and  in  connection  with  it  the  supplementary  treaty 
of  Fort  Gibson  was  also  ratified.  The  Seminoles,  however, 
were  not  showing  any  haste  about  removing,  and  ninety  of 
the  white  citizens  of  Alachua  County  sent  a  protest  to  the 
President  alleging  that  the  Indians  were  not  returning  their 
fugitive  slaves.  Jackson  was  made  angry,  and  without  even 
waiting  for  the  formal  ratification  of  the  treaties,  he  sent  the 
document  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  with  an  endorsement  on 
the  back  directing  him  "to  inquire  into  the  alleged  facts,  and 
if  found  to  be  true,  to  direct  the  Seminoles  to  prepare  to  re- 
move West  and  join  the  Creeks."  General  Wiley  Thompson 
was  appointed  to  succeed  Phagan  as  agent,  and  General  Dun- 
can L.  Clinch  was  placed  in  command  of  the  troops  whose 
services  it  was  thought  might  be  needed.  It  was  at  this  junc- 
ture that  Osceola  stepped  forward  as  the  leading  spirit  of  his 
people. 

4.     Osceola  and  the  Second  Seminole  War 

Osceola  (Asseola,  or  As-se-he-ho-lar,  sometimes  called 
Powell  because  after  his  father's  death  his  mother  married  a 
white  man  of  that  name  *)  was  not  more  than  thirty  years 
of  age.  He  was  slender,  of  only  average  height,  and  slightly 
round-shouldered ;  but  he  was  also  well  proportioned,  muscular, 
and  capable  of  enduring  great  fatigue.  He  had  light,  deep, 
restless  eyes,  and  a  shrill  voice,  and  he  was  a  great  admirer  of 
order  and  technique.  He  excelled  in  athletic  contests  and  in 
his  earlier  years  had  taken  delight  in  engaging  in  military  prac- 
tice with  the  white  men.  As  he  was  neither  by  descent  nor 
formal  election  a  chief,  he  was  not  expected  to  have  a  voice 
in  important  deliberations;  but  he  was  a  natural  leader  and 

*  Hodge's  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  II,  159. 


f 


108     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

he  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  organize  the  Seminoles  to 
resistance.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  to  his  single  in- 
fluence was  due  a  contest  that  ultimately  cost  $10,000,000  and 
the  loss  of  thousands  of  lives.  Never  did  a  patriot  fight  more 
valiantly  for  his  own,  and  it  stands  to  the  eternal  disgrace 
of  the  American  arms  that  he  was  captured  under  a  flag  of 
truce. 

It  is  well  to  pause  for  a  moment  and  reflect  upon  some  of 
the  deeper  motives  that  entered  into  the  impending  contest. 
A  distinguished  congressman,*  speaking  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  a  few  years  later,  touched  eloquently  upon 
some  of  the  events  of  these  troublous  years.  Let  us  remember 
that  this  was  the  time  of  the  formation  of  anti-slavery  so- 
cieties, of  pronounced  activity  on  the  part  of  the  abolitionists, 
and  recall  also  that  Nat  Turner's  insurrection  was  still  fresh 
in  the  public  mind.  Giddings  stated  clearly  the  issue  as  it 
appeared  to  the  people  of  the  North  when  he  said,  "I  hold 
that  if  the  slaves  of  Georgia  or  any  other  state  leave  their 
masters,  the  Federal  Government  has  no  constitutional  au- 
thority to  employ  our  army  or  navy  for  their  recapture,  or  to 
apply  the  national  treasure  to  repurchase  them."  There  could 
be  no  question  of  the  fact  that  the  war  was  very  largely  one 
over  fugitive  slaves.  Under  date  October  28,  1834,  Gen- 
eral Thompson  wrote  to  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs: 
"There  are  many  very  likely  Negroes  in  this  nation  [the 
Seminole].  Some  of  the  whites  in  the  adjacent  settlements 
manifest  a  restless  desire  to  obtain  them,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  Indian  raised  Negroes  are  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
whites."  In  a  letter  dated  January  20,  1834,  Governor  Duval 
had  already  said  to  the  same  official :  "The  slaves  belonging 
to  the  Indians  have  a  controlling  influence  over  the  minds 
of  their  masters,  and  are  entirely  opposed  to  any  change  of 
residence."  Six  days  later  he  wrote:  "The  slaves  belonging 
to  the  Indians  must  be  made  to  fear  for  themselves  before  they 
will  cease  to  influence  the  minds  of  their  masters.  .  .  .  The 
first  step  towards  the  emigration  of  these  Indians  must  be 
the  breaking  up  of  the  runaway  slaves  and  the  outlaw  In- 

*  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio.     His  exhaustive  speech  on  the  Florida 
War  was  made  February  9,  1841. 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  109 

dians."  And  the  New  Orleans  Courier  of  July  27,  1839,  re- 
vealed all  the  fears  of  the  period  when  it  said,  "Every  day's 
delay  in  subduing  the  Seminoles  increases  the  danger  of  a 
rising  among  the  serviles." 

All  the  while  injustice  and  injury  to  the  Indians  continued. 
Econchattimico,  well  known  as  one  of  those  chiefs  to  whom 
special  reservations  had  been  given  by  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Moultrie,  was  the  owner  of  twenty  slaves  valued  at  $15,- 
000.  Observing  Negro  stealers  hovering  around  his  estate, 
he  armed  himself  and  his  men.  The  kidnapers  then  fur- 
thered their  designs  by  circulating  the  report  that  the  Indians 
were  arming  themselves  for  union  with  the  main  body  of 
Seminoles  for  the  general  purpose  of  massacring  the  white 
people.  Face  to  face  with  this  charge  Econchattimico  gave 
up  his  arms  and  threw  himself  on  the  protection  of  the  gov- 
ernment; and  his  Negroes  were  at  once  taken  and  sold  into 
bondage. 

A  similar  case  was  that  of  John  Walker,  an  Appalachicola 
chief,  who  wrote  to  Thompson  under  date  July  28,  1835 :  "I 
am  induced  to  write  you  in  consequence  of  the  depredations 
making  and  attempted  to  be  made  upon  my  property,  by  a 
company  of  Negro  stealers,  some  of  whom  are  from  Columbus, 
Ga.,  and  have  connected  themselves  with  Brown  and  Doug- 
lass. ...  I  should  like  your  advice  how  I  am  to  act.  I 
dislike  to  make  or  to  have  any  difficulty  with  the  white  people. 
But  if  they  trespass  upon  my  premises  and  my  rights,  I  must 
defend  myself  the  best  way  I  can.  If  they  do  make  this  at- 
tempt, and  I  have  no  doubt  they  will,  they  must  bear  the  con- 
sequences. But  is  there  no  civil  law  to  protect  me?  Are  the 
free  Negroes  and  the  Negroes  belonging  to  this  town  to  be 
stolen  away  publicly,  and  in  the  face  of  law  and  justice,  car- 
ried off  and  sold  to  fill  the  pockets  of  these  worse  than  land 
pirates  ?  Douglass  and  his  company  hired  a  man  who  has  two 
large  trained  dogs  for  the  purpose  to  come  down  and  take 
Billy.  He  is  from  Mobile  and  follows  for  a  livelihood  catch- 
ing runaway  Negroes.,, 

Such  were  the  motives,  fears  and  incidents  in  the  years  im- 
mediately after  the  treaty  of  Payne's  Landing.  Beginning 
at  the  close  of   1834  and  continuing  through  April,    1835, 


no     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Thompson  had  a  series  of  conferences  with  the  Seminole  chiefs. 
At  these  meetings  Micanopy,  influenced  by  Osceola  and  other 
young  Seminoles,  took  a  more  definite  stand  than  he  might 
otherwise  have  assumed.  Especially  did  he  insist  with  refer- 
ence to  the  treaty  that  he  understood  that  the  chiefs  who  went 
West  were  to  examine  the  country,  and  for  his  part  he  knew 
that  when  they  returned  they  would  report  unfavorably. 
Thompson  then,  becoming  angry,  delivered  an  ultimatum  to 
the  effect  that  if  the  treaty  was  not  observed  the  annuity  from 
the  great  father  in  Washington  would  cease.  To  this,  Osceola, 
stepping  forward,  replied  that  he  and  his  warriors  did  not  care 
if  they  never  received  another  dollar  from  the  great  father, 
and  drawing  his  knife,  he  plunged  it  in  the  table  and  said, 
"The  only  treaty  I  will  execute  is  with  this."  Henceforward 
there  was  deadly  enmity  between  the  young  Seminole  and 
Thompson.  More  and  more  Osceola  made  his  personality  felt, 
constantly  asserting  to  the  men  of  his  nation  that  whoever 
recommended  emigration  was  an  enemy  of  the  Seminoles, 
and  he  finally  arrived  at  an  understanding  with  many  of  them 
that  the  treaty  would  be  resisted  with  their  very  lives.  Thomp- 
son, however,  on  April  23,  1835,  had  a  sort  of  secret  confer- 
ence with  sixteen  of  the  chiefs  who  seemed  favorably  dis- 
posed toward  migration,  and  he  persuaded  them  to  sign  a 
document  "freely  and  fully"  assenting  to  the  treaties  of 
Payne's  Landing  and  Fort  Gibson.  The  next  day  there  was  a 
formal  meeting  at  which  the  agent,  backed  up  by  Clinch  and 
his  soldiers,  upbraided  the  Indians  in  a  very  harsh  manner. 
His  words  were  met  by  groans,  angry  gesticulations,  and  only 
half -muffled  imprecations.  Clinch  endeavored  to  appeal  to 
the  Indians  and  to  advise  them  that  resistance  was  both  un- 
wise and  useless.  Thompson,  however,  with  his  usual  lack  of 
tact,  rushed  onward  in  his  course,  and  learning  that  five  chiefs 
were  unalterably  opposed  to  the  treaty,  he  arbitrarily  struck 
their  names  off  the  roll  of  chiefs,  an  action  the  highhanded- 
ness of  which  was  not  lost  on  the  Seminoles.  Immediately 
after  the  conference  moreover  he  forbade  the  sale  of  any  more 
arms  and  powder  to  the  Indians,  To  the  friendly  chiefs  the 
understanding  had  been  given  that  the  nation  might  have  until 
January  1,  1836,  to  make  preparation  for  removal,  by  which 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  m 

time  all  were  to  assemble  at  Fort  Brooke,  Tampa  Bay,  for  emi- 
gration. 

About  the  first  of  June  Osceola  was  one  day  on  a  quiet 
errand  of  trading  at  Fort  King.  With  him  was  his  wife,  the 
daughter  of  a  mulatto  slave  woman  who  had  run  away  years 
before  and  married  an  Indian  chief.  By  Southern  law 
this  woman  followed  the  condition  of  her  mother,  and 
when  the  mother's  former  owner  appeared  on  the  scene  and 
claimed  the  daughter,  Thompson,  who  desired  to  teach  Occeola 
a  lesson,  readily  agreed  that  she  should  be  remanded  into 
captivity.*  Osceola  was  highly  enraged,  and  this  time  it  was 
his  turn  to  upbraid  the  agent.  Thompson  now  had  him  over- 
powered and  put  in  irons,  in  which  situation  he  remained  for 
the  better  part  of  two  days.  In  this  period  of  captivity  his 
soul  plotted  revenge  and  at  length  he  too  planned  a  "ruse  de 
guerre."  Feigning  assent  to  the  treaty  he  told  Thompson  that 
if  he  was  released  not  only  would  he  sign  himself  but  he 
would  also  bring  his  people  to  sign.  The  agent  was  completely 
deceived  by  Osceola's  tactics.  "True  to>  his  professions,"  wrote 
Thompson  on  June  3,  "he  this  day  appeared  with  seventy-nine 
of  his  people,  men,  women,  and  children,  including  some  who 
had  joined  him  since  his  conversion,  and  redeemed  his  promise. 
He  told  me  many  of  his  friends  were  out  hunting,  whom  he 
could  and  would  bring  over  on  their  return.  I  have  now  no 
doubt  of  his  sincerity,  and  as  little,  that  the  greatest  difficulty 
is  surmounted." 

Osceola  now  rapidly  urged  forward  preparations  for  war, 
which,  however,  he  did  not  wish  actually  started  until  after 
the  crops  were  gathered.  By  the  fall  he  was  ready,  and  one 
day  in  October  when  he  and  some  other  warriors  met  Charley 
Emathla,  who  had  upon  him  the  gold  and  silver  that  he  had 

*  This  highly  important  incident,  which  was  really  the  spark  that 
started  the  war,  is  absolutely  ignored  even  by  such  well  informed  writers 
as  Drake  and  Sprague.  Drake  simply  gives  the  impression  that  the 
quarrel  between  Osceola  and  Thompson  was  over  the  old  matter  of 
emigration,  saying  (413),  "Remonstrance  soon  grew  into  altercation, 
which  ended  in  a  ruse  de  guerre,  by  which  Osceola  was  made  prisoner 
by  the  agent,  and  put  in  irons,  in  which  situation  he  was  kept  one 
night  and  part  of  two  days."  The  story  is  told  by  McMaster,  however. 
Also  note  M.  M.  Cohen  as  quoted  in  Quarterly  Anti-Slavery  Magazine, 
Vol.  II,  p.  419  (July,  1837). 


ii2     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO  , 

received  from  the  sale  of  his  cattle  preparatory  to  migration, 
they  killed  this  chief,  and  Osceola  threw  the  money  in  every 
direction,  saying  that  no  one  was  to  touch  it,  as  it  was  the 
price  of  the  red  man's  blood.  The  true  drift  of  events  be- 
came even  more  apparent  to  Thompson  and  Clinch  in  No- 
vember, when  five  chiefs  friendly  to  migration  with  five  hun- 
dred of  their  people  suddenly  appeared  at  Fort  Brooke  to  ask 
for  protection.  When  in  December  Thompson  sent  final  word 
to  the  Seminoles  that  they  must  bring  in  their  horses  and  cat- 
tle, the  Indians  did  not  come  on  the  appointed  day;  on  the 
contrary  they  sent  their  women  and  children  to  the  interior 
and  girded  themselves  for  battle.  To  Osceola  late  in  the  month 
a  runner  brought  word  that  some  troops  under  the  command 
of  Major  Dade  were  to  leave  Fort  Brooke  on  the  25th  and  on 
the  night  of  the  27th  were  to  be  attacked  by  some  Seminoles 
in  the  Wahoo  Swamp.  Osceola  himself,  with  some  of  his 
men,  was  meanwhile  lying  in  the  woods  near  Fort  King,  wait- 
ing for  an  opportunity  to  kill  Thompson.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  28th  the  agent  dined  not  far  from  the  fort  at  the  home  of 
the  sutler,  a  man  named  Rogers,  and  after  dinner  he  walked 
with  Lieutenant  Smith  to  the  crest  of  a  neighboring  hill.  Here 
he  was  surprised  by  the  Indians,  and  both  he  and  Smith  fell 
pierced  by  numerous  bullets.  The  Indians  then  pressed  on 
to  the  home  of  the  sutler  and  killed  Rogers,  his  two  clerks, 
and  a  little  boy.  On  the  same  day  the  command  of  Major 
Dade,  including  seven  officers  and  one  hundred  and  ten  men, 
was  almost  completely  annihilated,  only  three  men  escaping. 
Dade  and  his  horse  were  killed  at  the  first  onset.  These  two 
attacks  began  the  actual  fighting  of  the  Second  Seminole  War. 
That  the  Negroes  were  working  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 
Indians  in  these  encounters  may  be  seen  from  the  report  of 
Captain  Belton,*  who  said,  "Lieut.  Keays,  third  artillery,  had 
both  arms  broken  from  the  first  shot;  was  unable  to  act,  and 
was  tomahawked  the  latter  part  of  the  second  attack,  by  a 
Negro";  and  further:  "A  Negro  named  Harry  controls  the 
Pea  Band  of  about  a  hundred  warriors,  forty  miles  southeast 
of  us,  who  have  done  most  of  the  mischief,  and  keep  this  post 

♦Accessible  in  Drake,  416-418. 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  113 

constantly  observed."  Osceola  now  joined  forces  with  those 
Indians  who  had  attacked  Dade,  and  in  the  early  morning  of 
the  last  day  of  the  year  occurred  the  Battle  of  Ouithlecoochee, 
a  desperate  encounter  in  which  both  Osceola  and  Clinch  gave 
good  accounts  of  themselves.  Clinch  had  two  hundred  regu- 
lars and  five  or  six  hundred  volunteers.  The  latter  fled  early 
in  the  contest  and  looked  on  from  a  distance;  and  Clinch  had 
to  work  desperately  to  keep  from  duplicating  the  experience 
of  Dade.  Osceola  himself  was  conspicuous  in  a  red  belt  and 
three  long  feathers,  but  although  twice  wounded  he  seemed  to 
bear  a  charmed  life.  He  posted  himself  behind  a  tree,  from 
which  station  he  constantly  sallied  forth  to  kill  or  wound  an 
enemy  with  almost  infallible  aim. 

After  these  early  encounters  the  fighting  became  more  and 
more  bitter  and  the  contest  more  prolonged.  Early  in  the 
war  the  disbursing  agent  reported  that  there  were  only  three 
thousand  Indians,  including  Negroes,  to  be  considered ;  but  this 
was  clearly  an  understatement.  Within  the  next  year  and  a 
half  the  Indians  were  hard  pressed,  and  before  the  end  of 
this  period  the  notorious  Thomas  S.  Jessup  had  appeared  on 
the  scene  as  commanding  major  general.  This  man  seems 
to  have  determined  never  to  use  honorable  means  of  warfare 
if  some  ignoble  instrument  could  serve  his  purpose.  In  a  letter 
sent  to  Colonel  Harvey  from  Tampa  Bay  under  date  May  25, 
1837,  he  said:  "If  you  see  Powell  (Osceola),  tell  him  I  shall 
send  out  and  take  all  the  Negroes  who  belong  to  the  white 
people.  And  he  must  not  allow  the  Indian  Negroes  to  mix 
with  them.  Tell  him  I  am  sending  to  Cuba  for  bloodhounds 
to  trail  them;  and  I  intend  to  hang  every  one  of  them  who 
does  not  come  in."  And  it  might  be  remarked  that  for  his 
bloodhounds  Jessup  spent — or  said  he  spent — as  much  as 
$5,000,  a  fact  which  thoroughly  aroused  Giddings  and  other 
persons  from  the  North,  who  by  no  means  cared  to  see  such  an 
investment  of  public  funds.  By  order  No.  160,  dated  August  3, 
1837,  Jessup  invited  his  soldiers  to  plunder  and  rapine,  saying, 
"All  Indian  property  captured  from  this  date  will  belong  to 
the  corps  or  detachment  making  it."  From  St.  Augustine, 
under  date  October  20,  1837,  in  a  "confidential"  communica- 
tion he  said  to  one  of  his  lieutenants :  "Should  Powell  and  his 


ii4    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

warriors  come  within  the  fort,  seize  him  and  the  whole  party. 
It  is  important  that  he,  Wild  Cat,  John  Cowagee,  and  Tuste- 
nuggee,  be  secured.  Hold'jhem  until  you  have  my  orders  in 
relation  to  them."  *  Two  days"  later  he  was  able  to  write  to 
the  Secretary  of  War  that  Osceola  was  actually  taken.  Said- 
he:  "That  chief  came  into  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Peyton  on  the 
20th,  and  sent  a  messenger  to  General  Hernandez,  desiring 
to  see  and  converse  with  him.  The  sickly  season  being  over, 
and  there  being  no  further  necessity  to  temporize,  I  sent  a 
party  of  mounted  men,  and  seized  the  entire  body,  and  now 
have  them  securely  lodged  in  the  fort."  Osceola,  Wild  Cat, 
and  others  thus  captured  were  marched  to  St.  Augustine ;  but 
Wild  Cat  escaped.  Osceola  was  ultimately  taken  to  Fort 
Moultrie,  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston,  where  in  January  ( 1838) 
he  died. 

Important  in  this  general  connection  was  the  fate  of  the 
deputation  that  the  influential  John  Ross,  chief  of  the  Chero- 
kees,  was  persuaded  to  send  from  his  nation  to  induce  the 
Seminoles  to  think  more  favorably  of  migration.  Micanopy, 
twelve  other  chieftains,  and  a  number  of  warriors  accompanied 
the  Cherokee  deputation  to  the  headquarters  of  the  United 
States  Army  at  Fort  Mellon,  where  they  were  to  discuss  the 
matter.  These  warriors  also  Jessup  seized,  and  Ross  wrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  War  a  dignified  but  bitter  letter  protesting 
against  this  "unprecedented  violation  of  that  sacred  rule  which 
has  ever  been  recognized  by  every  nation,  civilized  and  un- 
civilized, of  treating  with  all  due  respect  those  who  had  ever 
presented  themselves  under  a  flag  of  truce  before  the  enemy, 
for  the  purpose  of  proposing  the  termination  of  warfare."  He 
had  indeed  been  most  basely  used  as  the  agent  of  deception. 
This  chapter,  we  trust,  has  shown  something  of  the  real 
nature  of  the  points  at  issue  in  the  Seminole  Wars.  In  the 
I  course  of  these  contests  the  rights  of  Indian  and  Negro  alike 
I  were  ruthlessly  disregarded.  There  was  redress  for  neither 
before  the  courts,  and  at  the  end  in  dealing  with  them  every 
honorable  principle  of  men  and  nations  was  violated.     It  is 

*  This  correspondence,  and  much  more  bearing  on  the  point,  may  be 
found  in  House  Document  327  of  the  Second  Session  of  the  Twenty-fifth 
Congress. 


INDIAN  AND  NEGRO  115 

interesting  that  the  three  representatives  of  colored  peoples 
who  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  was  most  diffi- 
cult to  capture — Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  the  Negro,  Osceola, 
the"  'Indian,  and  Aguinaldo,  the  Filipino — were  all  taken 
through  treachery;  and  on  two  of  the  three  occasions  this 
treachery  was  practiced  by  responsible  officers  of  the  United 
States  Army. 


CHAPTER  VI 

EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM 

I.     The  Ultimate  Problem  and  the  Missouri  Compromise 

In  a  previous  chapter*  we  have  already  indicated  the  rise 
of  the  Negro  Problem  in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth 
and  the  first  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  what 
was  the  Negro  Problem?  It  was  certainly  not  merely  a  ques- 
tion of  slavery;  in  the  last  analysis  this  institution  was  hardly 
more  than  an  incident.  Slavery  has  ceased  to  exist,  but  even 
^^^xobkj^ijs^ynt^u^  The  question  was  rather  what 
ras  to  be  the  final  place  in  the  American  body  politic  of  the 
Negro  population  that  was  so  rapidly  increasing  in  the  country. 
In  the  answering  of  this  question  supreme  importance  attached 
to  the  Negro  himself;  but  the  problem  soon  transcended  the 
race.  Ultimately  it  was  the  destiny  of  the  United  States 
rather  than  of  the  Negro  that  was  to  be  considered,  and  all 
the  ideals  on  which  the  country  was  based  came  to  the  testing. 
If  one  studied  those  ideals  he  soon  realized  that  they  were 
based  on  Teutonic  or  at  least  English  foundations.  By  1820, 
however,  the  young  American  republic  was  already  beginning 
to  be  the  hope  of  all  of  the  oppressed  people  of  Europe,  and 
Greeks  and  Italians  as  well  as  Germans  and  Swedes  were  turn- 
ing their  faces  toward  the  Promised  Land.  The  whole  back- 
ground of  Latin  culture  was  different  from  the  Teutonic,  and 
yet  the  people  of  Southern  as  well  as  of  Northern  Europe 
somehow  became  a  part  of  the  life  of  the  United  States.  In 
this  life  was  it  also  possible  for  the  children  of  Africa  to  have 
a  permanent  and  an  honorable  place?  With  their  special  tra- 
dition and  gifts,  with  their  shortcomings,  above  all  with  their 
distinctive  color,  could  they,  too,  become  genuine  American 

*  IV,  Section  3. 

116 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  117 

citizens?     Some  said  No,   but  in  taking  this   position  they    , 
denied  not  only  the  ideals  on  which  the  country  was  founded 
but  also  the  possibilities  of  human  nature  itself.     In  any  case 
the  answer  to  the  first  question  at  once  suggested  another 
What  shall  we  do  with  the  Negro?     About  this  there  was 
very  great  difference  of  opinion,  it  not  always  being  supposed 
that  the  Negro  himself  had  anything  whatever  to  say  about 
the  matter.     Some  said  send  the  Negro  away,  get  rid  of  him  -* 
by  any  means  whatsoever;  others  said  if  he  must  stay,  keep  - 
him   in   slavery ;   still   others   said  not  to   keep   him   perma-  *~ 
nently  in  slavery,   but  emancipate   him  only   gradually;   and 
already  there  were  beginning  to  be  persons  who  felt  that  the .— *" 
Negro  should  be  emancipated   everywhere  immediately,   and 
that  after  this  great  event  had  taken  place  he  and  the  nation 
together  should  work  out  his  salvation  on  the  broadest  pos- 
sible plane. 

Into  the  agitation  was  suddenly  thrust  the  application  of 
Missouri  for  entrance  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state.  The 
struggle  that  followed  for  two  years  was  primarily  a  political 
one,  but  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  the  evils  of  slavery 
were  fully  considered.  Meanwhile,  in  1819,  Alabama  and 
Maine  also  applied  for  admission.  Alabama  was  allowed  to 
enter  without  much  discussion,  as  she  made  equal  the  number 
of  slave  and  free  states.  Maine,  however,  brought  forth  more 
talk.  The  Southern  congressmen  would  have  been  perfectly 
willing  to  admit  this  as  a  free  state  if  Missouri  had  been  ad- 
mitted as  a  slave  state;  but  the  North  felt  that  this  would 
have  been  to  concede  altogether  too  much,  as  Missouri  from 
the  first  gave  promise  of  being  unusually  important.  At  length, 
largely  through  the  influence  of  Henry  Clay,  there  was  adopted 
a  compromise  whose  main  provisions  were  (1)  that  Maine 
was  to  be  admitted  as  a  free  state;  (2)  that  in  Missouri  there 
was  to  be  no  prohibition  of  slavery;  but  (3)  that  slavery  was 
to  be  prohibited  in  any  other  states  that  might  be  formed  out 
of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  north  of  the  line  of  360  30'. 

By  this  agreement  the  strife  was  allayed  for  some  years; 
but  it  is  now  evident  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  only 
a  postponement  of  the  ultimate  contest  and  that  the  social 
questions  involved  were  hardly  touched.     Certainly  the  sig- 


n8     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

nificance  of  the  first  clear  drawing  of  the  line  between  the 
sections  was  not  lost  upon  thoughtful  men.  Jefferson  wrote 
from  Monticello  in  1820:  "This  momentous  question,  like  a 
fire-bell  in  the  night,  awakened  and  filled  me  with  terror.  I 
considered  it  at  once  as  the  knell  of  the  Union.  It  is  hushed, 
indeed,  for  the  moment.  But  this  is  a  reprieve  only,  not  a 
final  sentence.  ...  I  can  say,  with  conscious  truth,  that  there 
is  not  a  man  on  earth  who  would  sacrifice  more  than  I  would 
to  relieve  us  from  this  heavy  reproach,  in  any  practicable  way. 
The  cession  of  that  kind  of  property,  for  so  it  is  misnamed, 
is  a  bagatelle  that  would  not  cost  me  a  second  thought,  if,  in 
that  way,  a  general  emancipation  and  expatriation  could  be 
effected;  and,  gradually,  and  with  due  sacrifices,  I  think  it 
might  be."  *  For  the  time  being,  however,  the  South  was 
concerned  mainly  about  immediate  dangers;  nor  was  this  sec- 
tion placed  more  at  ease  by  Denmark  Vesey's  attempted  insur- 
rection in  i822.f  A  representative  South  Carolinian, J  writ- 
ing after  this  event,  said,  "We  regard  our  Negroes  as  the 
Jacobins  of  the  country,  against  whom  we  should  always  be 
upon  our  guard,  and  who,  although  we  fear  no  permanent 
effects  from  any  insurrectionary  movements  on  their  part, 
should  be  watched  with  an  eye  of  steady  and  unremitted  ob- 
servation." Meanwhile  from  a  ratio  of  43.72  to  56.28  in 
1790  the  total  Negro  population  in  South  Carolina  had  by 
1820  come  to  outnumber  the  white  52.77  to  47.23,  and  the 
tendency  was  increasingly  in  favor  of  the  Negro.  The  South, 
the  whole  country  in  fact,  was  more  and  more  being  forced  to 
consider  not  only  slavery  but  the  ultimate  reaches  of  the 
problem. 

Whatever  one  might  think  of  the  conclusion — and  in  this 
case  the  speaker  was  pleading  for  colonization — no  statement 
of  the  problem  as  it  impressed  men  about  1820  or  1830  was 
clearer  than  that  of  Rev.  Dr.  Nott,  President  of  Union  Col- 
lege, at  Albany  in  i829.§  The  question,  said  he,  was  by  no 
means  local.     Slavery  was  once  legalized  in  New   England; 

*  Writings,  XV,  249. 
t  See  Chapter  VII,  Section  1. 
t  Holland :    A  Refutation  of  Calumnies,  61. 

§  See  "African  Colonization.  Proceedings  of  the  Formation  of  the 
New  York  State  Colonization  Society."    Albany,  1829. 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  119 

and  New  England  built  slave-ships  and  manned  these  with 
New  England  seamen.  In  1820  the  slave  population  in  the 
country  amounted  to  1,500,000.  The  number  doubled  every 
twenty  years,  and  it  was  easy  to  see  how  it  would  progress 
from  1,500,000  to  3,000,000;  to  6,000,000;  to  12,000,000; 
to  24,000,000.  "Twenty-four  millions  of  slaves!  What  a 
drawback  from  our  strength;  what  a  tax  on  our  resources; 
what  a  hindrance  to  our  growth;  what  a  stain  on  our  char- 
acter; and  what  an  impediment  to  the  fulfillment  of  our  destiny! 
Could  our  worst  enemies  or  the  worst  enemies  of  republics, 
wish  us  a  severer  judgment?"  How  could  one  know  that 
wakeful  and  sagacious  enemies  without  would  not  discover 
the  vulnerable  point  and  use  it  for  the  country's  overthrow? 
Or  was  there  not  danger  that  among  a  people  goaded  from 
age  to  age  there  might  at  length  arise  some  second  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture,  who,  reckless  of  consequences,  would  array  a 
force  and  cause  a  movement  throughout  the  zone  of  bondage, 
leaving  behind  him  plantations  waste  and  mansions  desolate? 
Who  could  believe  that  such  a  tremendous  physical  force 
would  remain  forever  spell-bound  and  quiescent?  After  all, 
however,  slavery  was  doomed ;  public  opinion  had  already  pro- 
nounced upon  it,  and  the  moral  energy  of  the  nation  would 
sooner  or  later  effect  its  overthrow.  "But,"  continued  Nott, 
"the  solemn  question  here  arises — in  what  condition  will  this 
momentous  change  place  us?  The  freed  men  of  other  coun- 
tries have  long  since  disappeared,  having  been  amalgamated 
in  the  general  mass.  Here  there  can  be  no  amalgamation. 
Our  manumitted  bondmen  have  remained  already  to  the  third 
and  fourth,  as  they  will  to  the  thousandth  generation — a  dis- 
tinct, a  degraded,  and  a  wretched  race."  After  this  sweeping 
statement,  which  has  certainly  not  been  justified  by  time,  Nott 
proceeded  to  argue  the  expediency  of  his  organization.  Gerrit 
Smith,  who  later  drifted  away  from  colonization,  said  frankly 
on  the  same  occasion  that  the  ultimate  solution  was  either 
amalgamation  or  colonization,  and  that  of  the  two  courses  he 
preferred  to  choose  the  latter.  Others  felt  as  he  did.  We 
shall  now  accordingly  proceed  to  consider  at  somewhat  greater 
length  the  two  solutions  that  about  1820  had  the  clearest  ad- 
vocates— Colonization  and  Slavery. 


120     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

2.     Colonization 

Early  in  1773,  Rev.  Samuel  Hopkins,  of  Newport,  called 
on  his  friend,  Rev.  Ezra  Stiles,  afterwards  President  of  Yale 
College,  and  suggested  the  possibility  of  educating  Negro  stu- 
dents, perhaps  two  at  first,  who  would  later  go  as  missionaries 
to  Africa.  Stiles  thought  that  for  the  plan  to  be  worth  while 
there  should  be  a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  that  at  least 
thirty  or  forty  persons  should  go,  and  that  the  enterprise 
should  not  be  private  but  should  have  the  formal  backing  of 
a  society  organized  for  the  purpose.  In  harmony  with  the 
original  plan  two  young  Negro  men  sailed  from  New  York 
for  Africa,  November  12,  1774;  but  the  Revolutionary  War 
followed  and  nothing  more  was  done  at  the  time.  In  1784, 
however,  and  again  in  1787,  Hopkins  tried  to  induce  dif- 
ferent merchants  to  fit  out  a  vessel  to  convey  a  few  emigrants, 
and  in  the  latter  year  he  talked  with  a  young  man  from  the 
West  Indies,  Dr.  William  Thornton,  who  expressed  a  willing- 
ness to  take  charge  of  the  company.  The  enterprise  failed 
for  lack  of  funds,  though  Thornton  kept  up  his  interest  and 
afterwards  became  a  member  of  the  first  Board  of  Managers 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society.  Hopkins  in  1791  spoke 
before  the  Connecticut  Emancipation  Society,  which  he  wished 
to  see  incorporated  as  a  colonization  society,  and  in  a  sermon 
before  the  Providence  society  in  1793  he  reverted  to  his 
favorite  theme.  Meanwhile,  as  a  result  of  the  efforts  of  Wil- 
berforce,  Clarkson,  and  Granville  Sharp  in  England,  in  May, 
1787,  some  four  hundred  Negroes  and  sixty  white  persons 
were  landed  at  Sierra  Leone.  Some  of  the  Negroes  in  Eng- 
land had  gained  their  freedom  in  consequence  of  Lord  Mans- 
field's decision  in  1772,  others  had  been  discharged  from  the 
British  Army  after  the  American  Revolution,  and  all  were 
leading  in  England  a  more  or  less  precarious  existence.  The 
sixty  white  persons  sent  along  were  abandoned  women,  and 
why  Sierra  Leone  should  have  had  this  weight  placed  upon  it 
at  the  start  history  has  not  yet  told.  It  is  not  surprising  to 
learn  that  ''disease  and  disorder  were  rife,  and  by  1791  a  mere 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  121 

handful  survived."  *  As  early  as  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia, 
privately  printed  in  1781,  Thomas  Jefferson  had  suggested 
a  colony  for  Negroes,  perhaps  in  the  new  territory  of  Ohio. 
The  suggestion  was  not  acted  upon,  but  it  is  evident  that  by 
1800  several  persons  had  thought  of  the  possibility  of  re- 
moving the  Negroes  in  the  South  to  some  other  place  either 
within  or  without  the  country. 

Gabriel's  insurrection  in  1800  again  forced  the  idea  con- 
cretely forward.  Virginia  was  visibly  disturbed  by  this  out- 
break, and  in  secret  session,  on  December  21,  the  House  of 
Delegates  passed  the  following  resolution :  'That  the  Gov- 
ernor! be  requested  to  correspond  with  the  President  of  the 
United  States, J  on  the  subject  of  purchasing  land  without 
the  limits  of  this  state,  whither  persons  obnoxious  to  the  laws, 
or  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  society  may  be  removed."  The 
real  purpose  of  this  resolution  was  to  get  rid  of  those  Negroes 
who  had  had  some  part  in  the  insurrection  and  had  not  been 
executed;  but  not  in  1800,  or  in  1802  or  1804,  was  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  thus  able  to  banish  those  whom  it  was  afraid 
to  hang.  Monroe,  however,  acted  in  accordance  with  his  in- 
structions, and  Jefferson  replied  to  him  under  date  November 
24,  1 80 1.  He  was  not  now  favorable  to  deportation  to  some 
place  within  the  United  States,  and  thought  that  the  West 
Indies,  probably  Santo  Domingo,  might  be  better.  There  was 
little  real  danger  that  the  exiles  would  stimulate  vindictive  or 
predatory  descents  on  the  American  coasts,  and  in  any  case 
such  a  possibility  was  "overweighed  by  the  humanity  of  the 
measures  proposed."  "Africa  would  offer  a  last  and  un- 
doubted resort,"  thought  Jefferson,  "if  all  others  more  de- 
sirable should  fail."  §  Six  months  later,  on  July  13,  1802, 
the  President  wrote  about  the  matter  to  Rufus  King,  then 
minister  in  London.  The  course  of  events  in  the  West  Indies, 
he  said,  had  given  an  impulse  to  the  minds  of  Negroes  in  the 
United  States;  there  was  a  disposition  to  insurgency,  and  it 
now  seemed  that  if  there  was  to  be  colonization,  Africa  was 

*  McPherson,  15.     (See  bibliography  on  Liberia.) 

t  Monroe. 

t  Jefferson. 

§  Writings,  X,  297. 


122     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

by  all  means  the  best  place.  An  African  company  might  also 
engage  in  commercial  operations,  and  if  there  was  cooperation 
with  Sierra  Leone,  there  was  the  possibility  of  "one  strong, 
rather  than  two  weak  colonies."  Would  King  accordingly 
enter  into  conference  with  the  English  officials  with  reference 
to  disposing  of  any  Negroes  who  might  be  sent?  "It  is  ma- 
terial to  observe,"  remarked  Jefferson,  "that  they  are  not 
felons,  or  common  malefactors,  but  persons  guilty  of  what 
the  safety  of  society,  under  actual  circumstances,  obliges  us 
to  treat  as  a  crime,  but  which  their  feelings  may  represent 
in  a  far  different  shape.  They  are  such  as  will  be  a  valuable 
acquisition  to  the  settlement  already  existing  there,  and  well 
calculated  to  cooperate  in  the  plan  of  civilization."  *  King 
accordingly  opened  correspondence  with  Thornton  and  Wed- 
derbourne,  the  secretaries  of  the  company  having  charge  of 
Sierra  Leone,  but  was  informed  that  the  colony  was  in  a  lan- 
guishing condition  and  that  funds  were  likely  to  fail,  and  that 
in  no  event  would  they  be  willing  to  receive  more  people  from 
the  United  States,  as  these  were  the  very  ones  who  had  al- 
ready made  most  trouble  in  the  settlement. f  On  January  22 , 
1805,  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  passed  a  resolution 
that  embodied  a  request  to  the  United  States  Government 
to  set  aside  a  portion  of  territory  in  the  new  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase "to  be  appropriated  to  the  residence  of  such  people  of 
color  as  have  been,  or  shall  be,  emancipated,  or  may  hereafter 
become  dangerous  to  the  public  safety."  Nothing  came  of 
this.  By  the  close  then  of  Jefferson's  second  administration 
the  Northwest,  the  Southwest,  the  West  Indies,  and  Sierra 
Leone  had  all  been  thought  of  as  possible  fields  for  coloniza- 
tion, but  from  the  consideration  nothing  visible  had  resulted. 
Now  followed  the  period  of  Southern  expansion  and  of 
increasing  materialism,  and  before  long  came  the  War  of 
1812.  By  181 1  a  note  of  doubt  had  crept  into  Jefferson's 
dealing  with  the  subject.  Said  he:  "Nothing  is  more  to  be 
wished  than  that  the  United  States  would  themselves  under- 
take to  make  such  an  establishment  on  the  coast  of  Africa  .  .  . 
But  for  this  the  national  mind  is  not  yet  prepared.     It  may 

*  Writings,  X,  327-328. 
tlbid.,  XIII,  11. 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  123 

perhaps  be  doubted  whether  many  of  these  people  would  vol- 
untarily consent  to  such  an  exchange  of  situation,  and  very 
certain  that  few  of  those  advanced  to  a  certain  age  in  habits 
of  slavery,  would  be  capable  of  self-government.  This  should 
not,  however,  discourage  the  experiment,  nor  the  early  trial 
of  it;  and  the  proposition  should  be  made  with  all  the  prudent 
cautions  and  attentions  requisite  to  reconcile  it  to  the  inter- 
ests, the  safety,  and  the  prejudices  of  all  parties."  * 

From  an  entirely  different  source,  however,  and  prompted 
not  by  expediency  but  the  purest  altruism,  came  an  impulse 
that  finally  told  in  the  founding  of  Liberia.  The  heart  of  a 
young  man  reached  out  across  the  sea.  Samuel  J.  Mills,  an 
undergraduate  of  Williams  College,  in  1808  formed  among 
his  fellow-students  a  missionary  society  whose  work  later 
told  in  the  formation  of  the  American  Bible  Society  and  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  Mills  continued  his  theological 
studies  at  Andover  and  then  at  Princeton;  and  while  at  the 
latter  place  he  established  a  school  for  Negroes  at  Parsippany, 
thirty  miles  away.  He  also  interested  in  his  work  and  hopes 
Rev.  Robert  Finley,  of  Basking  Ridge,  N.  J.,  who  "succeeded 
in  assembling  at  Princeton  the  first  meeting  ever  called  to 
consider  the  project  of  sending  Negro  colonists  to  Africa,"  f 
and  who  in  a  letter  to  John  P.  Mum  ford,  of  New  York,  under 
date  February  14,  181 5,  expressed  his  interest  by  saying, 
"We  should  send  to  Africa  a  population  partly  civilized  and 
christianized  for  its  benefit;  and  our  blacks  themselves  would 
be  put  in  a  better  condition." 

In  this  same  year,  181 5,  the  country  was  startled  by  the 
unselfish  enterprise  of  a  Negro  who  had  long  thought  of  the 
unfortunate  situation  of  his  people  in  America  and  who  him- 
self shouldered  the  obligation  to  do  something  definite  in  their 
behalf.  Paul  Cuffe  had  been  born  in  May,  1759,  on  one  of 
the  Elizabeth  Islands  near  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  the  son  of  a 
father  who  was  once  a  slave  from  Africa  and  of  an  Indian 
mother.  J  Interested  in  navigation,  he  made  voyages  to  Rus- 
sia,  England,  Africa,  the  West  Indies,  and  the  South;  and 

*  Writings,  XIII,  11. 

t  McPherson,  18. 

t  First  Annual  Report  of  American  Colonization  Society. 


124    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

in  time  he  commanded  his  own  vessel,  became  generally  re- 
spected, and  by  his  wisdom  rose  to  a  fair  degree  of  opulence. 
For  twenty  years  he  had  thought  especially  about  Africa,  and 
in  1815  he  took  to  Sierra  Leone  a  total  of  nine  families  and 
thirty-eight  persons  at  an  expense  to  himself  of  nearly  $4000. 
The  people  that  he  brought  were  well  received  at  Sierra 
Leone,  and  CufTe  himself  had  greater  and  more  far-reaching 
plans  when  he  died  September  7,  181 7.  He  left  an  estate 
valued  at  $20,000. 

Dr.  Finley's  meeting  at  Princeton  was  not  very  well  attend- 
ed and  hence  not  a  great  success.  Nevertheless  he  felt  suffi- 
ciently encouraged  to  go  to  Washington  in  December,  18 16, 
to  use  his  effort  for  the  formation  of  a  national  colonization 
society.  It  happened  that  in  February  of  this  same  year, 
1 816,  General  Charles  Fenton  Mercer,  member  of  the  House 
of  Delegates,  came  upon  the  secret  journals  of  the  legislature 
for  the  period  180 1-5  and  saw  the  correspondence  between 
Monroe  and  Jefferson.  Interested  in  the  colonization  project, 
on  December  14  (Monroe  then  being  President-elect)  he  pre- 
sented in  the  House  of  Delegates  resolutions  embodying  the 
previous  enactments;  and  these  passed  132  to  14.  Finley  was 
generally  helped  by  the  effort  of  Mercer,  and  on  December 
21,  181 6,  there  was  held  in  Washington  a  meeting  of  public 
men  and  interested  citizens,  Henry  Clay,  then  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  presiding.  A  constitution  was 
adopted  at  an  adjourned  meeting  on  December  28;  and  on 
January  1,  18 17,  were  formally  chosen  the  officers  of  'The 
American  Society  for  Colonizing  the  Free  People  of  Color  of 
the  United  States."  At  this  last  meeting  Henry  Clay,  again 
presiding,  spoke  in  glowing  terms  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
movement;  Elias  B.  Caldwell,  a  brother-in-law  of  Finley,  made 
the  leading  argument;  and  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  Va., 
and  Robert  Wright,  of  Maryland,  spoke  of  the  advantages 
to  accrue  from  the  removal  of  the  free  Negroes  from  the 
country  (which  remarks  were  very  soon  to  awaken  much 
discussion  and  criticism,  especially  on  the  part  of  the  Negroes 
themselves).  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Mercer  had  no 
part  at  all  in  the  meeting  of  January  1,  not  even  being  present ; 
he  did  not  feel  that  any  but  Southern  men  should  be  enrolled 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  125 

in  the  organization.  However,  Bushrod  Washington,  the 
president,  was  a  Southern  man;  twelve  of  the  seventeen  vice- 
presidents  were  Southern  men,  among  them  being  Andrew 
Jackson  and  William  Crawford;  and  all  of  the  twelve  man- 
agers were  slaveholders. 

Membership  in  the  American  Colonization  Society  original- 
ly consisted,  first,  of  such  as  sincerely  desired  to  afford  the 
free   Negroes   an   asylum    from   oppression   and   who   hoped 
through  them  to  extend  to  Africa  the  blessings  of  civilization 
and  Christianity;  second,  of  such  as  sought  to  enhance  the 
value  of  their  own  slaves  by  removing  the  free  Negroes ;  and 
third,  of  such  as  desired  to  be  relieved  of  any  responsibility 
whatever  for  free  Negroes.     The  movement  was  widely  ad- 
vertised as  "an  effort  for  the  benefit  of  the  blacks  in  which 
all  parts  of  the  country  could  unite,"  it  being  understood  that 
it  was  "not  to  have  the  abolition  of  slavery  for  its  immediate 
object,"  nor  was  it  to  "aim  directly  at  the  instruction  of  the 
great  body  of  the  blacks."     Such  points  as  the  last  were  to 
prove  in  course  of  time  hardly  less  than  a  direct  challenge  to 
the  different  abolitionist  organizations  in  the  North,  and  more 
and  more  the  Society  was  denounced  as  a  movement  on  the 
part  of  slaveholders  for  perpetuating  their  institutions  by  do- 
ing away  with  the  free  people  of  color.     It  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed, however,  that  the  South,  with  its  usual  religious  fervor, 
did  not  put  much  genuine  feeling  into  the  colonization  scheme. 
One  man  in  Georgia  named  Tubman  freed  his  slaves,  thirty 
in  all,  and  placed  them  in  charge  of  the  Society  with  a  gift 
of  $10,000;   Thomas   Hunt,   a  young  Virginian,  afterwards 
a  chaplain  in  the  Union  Army,  sent  to  Liberia  the  slaves  he 
had   inherited,   paying  the   entire   cost   of   the   journey;   and 
others  acted  in  a  similar  spirit  of  benevolence.     It  was  but 
natural,  however,    for  the   public  to  be  somewhat  uncertain 
as  to  the  tendencies  of  the  organization  when  the  utterances 
of  representative  men  were  sometimes  directly  contradictory. 
On  January  20,    1827,   for  instance,  Henry  Clay,  then  Sec- 
retary of  State,  speaking  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Society,  said:  "Of  all 
classes  of  our  population,  the  most  vicious  is  that  of  the  free 
colored.     It  is  the  inevitable  result  of  their  moral,  political, 


126    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  civil  degradation.  Contaminated  themselves,  they  extend 
.xces  to  all  around  them,  to  the  slaves  and  to  the  whites." 
Just  a  moment  later  he  said:  "Every  emigrant  to  Africa  is  a 
missionary  carrying  with  him  credentials  in  the  holy  cause  of 
civilization,  religion,  and  free  institutions."  How  persons 
contaminated  and  vicious  could  be  missionaries  of  civilization 
and  religion  was  something  possible  only  in  the  logic  of  Henry 
Clay.  In  the  course  of  the  next  month  Robert  Y.  Hayne  gave 
a  Southern  criticism  in  two  addresses  on  a  memorial  presented 
in  the  United  States  Senate  by  the  Colonization  Society.*  The 
first  of  these  speeches  was  a  clever  one  characterized  by  much 
wit  and  good-humored  raillery;  the  second  was  a  sober  ar- 
raignment. Hayne  emphasized  the  tremendous  cost  involved 
and  the  physical  impossibility  of  the  whole  undertaking,  esti- 
mating that  at  least  sixty  thousand  persons  a  year  would  have 
to  be  transported  to  accomplish  anything  like  the  desired  re- 
sult. At  the  close  of  his  brilliant  attack,  still  making  a  veiled 
plea  for  the  continuance  of  slavery,  he  nevertheless  rose  to 
genuine  statesmanship  in  dealing  wijh  the  problem  of  the 
Negro,  saying,  "While  this  process  is  going  on  the  colored 
classes  are  gradually  diffusing  themselves  throughout  the  coun- 
try and  are  making  steady  advances  in  intelligence  and  refine- 
ment, and  if  half  the  zeal  were  displayed  in  bettering  their 
condition  that  is  now  wasted  in  the  vain  and  fruitless  effort 
of  sending  them  abroad,  their  intellectual  and  moral  improve- 
ment would  be  steady  and  rapid."  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
was  untiring  and  merciless  in  flaying  the  inconsistencies  and 
selfishness  of  the  colonization  organization.  In  an  editorial 
in  the  Liberator,  July  9,  1831,  he  charged  the  Society,  first, 
with  persecution  in  compelling  free  people  to  emigrate  against 
their  will  and  in  discouraging  their  education  at  home ;  second, 
with  falsehood  in  saying  that  the  Negroes  were  natives  of 
Africa  when  they  were  no  more  so  than  white  Americans  were 
natives  of  Great  Britain;  third,  with  cowardice  in  asserting 
that  the  continuance  of  the  Negro  population  in  the  country 
involved  dangers ;  and  finally,  with  infidelity  in  denying  that 
the  Gospel  has  full  power  to  reach  the  hatred  in  the  hearts  of 

*  See  Jervey :    Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  His  Times,  207-8. 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  127 

men.  In  Thoughts  on  African  Colonization  (1832)  he  de- 
veloped exhaustively  ten  points  as  follows :  That  the  American 
Colonization  Society  was  pledged  not  to  oppose  the  system 
of  slavery,  that  it  apologized  for  slavery  and  slaveholders, 
that  it  recognized  slaves  as  property,  that  by  deporting  Ne- 
groes it  increased  the  value  of  slaves,  that  it  was  the  enemy 
of  immediate  abolition,  that  it  was  nourished  by  fear  and 
selfishness,  that  it  aimed  at  the  utter  expulsion  of  the  blacks, 
that  it  was  the  disparager  of  free  Negroes,  that  it  denied  the 
possibility  of  elevating  the  black  people  of  the  country,  and 
that  it  deceived  and  misled  the  nation.  Other  criticisms  were 
numerous.  A  broadside,  "The  Shields  of  American  Slavery" 
("Broad  enough  to  hide  the  wrongs  of  two  millions  of  stolen 
men")  placed  side  by  side  conflicting  utterances  of  members 
of  the  Society;  and  in  August,  1830,  Kendall,  fourth  auditor, 
in  his  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  wondered  why  the 
resources  of  the  government  should  be  used  "to  colonize  re- 
captured Africans,  to  build  homes  for  them,  to  furnish  them 
with  farming  utensils,  to  pay  instructors  to  teach  them,  to 
purchase  ships  for  their  convenience,  to  build  forts  for  their 
protection,  to  supply  them  with  arms  and  munitions  of  war, 
to  enlist  troops  to  guard  them,  and  to  employ  the  army  and 
navy  in  their  defense."*  Criticism  of  the  American  Coloniza- 
tion Society  was  prompted  by  a  variety  of  motives;  but  the 
organization  made  itself  vulnerable  at  many  points.  The 
movement  attracted  extraordinary  attention,  but  has  had  prac- 
tically no  effect  whatever  on  the  position  of  the  Negro  in  the 
United  States.  Its  work  in  connection  with  the  founding  of 
Liberia,  however,  is  of  the  highest  importance,  and  must  later 
receive  detailed  attention. 


3.    Slavery 

We  have  seen  that  from  the  beginning  there  were  liberal- 
minded  men  in  the  South  who  opposed  tfae  system  of  slavery, 
and  if  we  actually  take  note  of  all  the  utterances  of  different 
men  and  of  the  proposals  for  doing  away  with  the  system,  we 

*  Cited  by  McPherson,  22. 


128     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

shall  find  that  about  the  turn  of  the  century  there  was  in  this 
section  considerable  anti-slavery  sentiment.  Between  1800  and 
1820,  however,  the  opening  of  new  lands  in  the  Southwest, 
the  increasing  emphasis  on  cotton,  and  the  rapidly  growing 
Negro  population,  gave  force  to  the  argument  of  expediency; 
and  the  Missouri  Compromise  drew  sharply  the  lines  of  the 
contest.  The  South  now  came  to  regard  slavery  as  its  peculiar 
heritage;  public  men  were  forced  to  defend  the  institution; 
and  in  general  the  best  thought  of  the  section  began  to  be  ob- 
sessed and  dominated  by  the  Negro,  just  as  it  is  to-day  in  large 
measure.  In  taking  this  position  the  South  deliberately  com- 
mitted intellectual  suicide.  In  such  matters  as  freedom  of 
speech  and  literary  achievement,  and  in  genuine  statesmanship 
if  not  for  the  time  being  in  political  influence,  this  part  of 
the  country  declined,  and  before  long  the  difference  between 
it  and  New  England  was  appalling.  Calhoun  and  Hayne  were 
strong;  but  between  1820  and  i860  the  South  had  no  names 
to  compare  with  Longfellow  and  Emerson  in  literature,  or 
with  Morse  and  Hoe  in  invention.  The  foremost  college 
professor,  Dew,  of  William  and  Mary,  and  even  the  outstand- 
ing divines,  Furman,  the  Baptist,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the 
twenties,  and  Palmer,  the  Presbyterian  of  New  Orleans,  in  the 
fifties,  are  all  now  remembered  mainly  because  they  defended 
their  section  in  keeping  the  Negro  in  bonds.  William  and 
Mary  College,  and  even  the  University  of  Virginia,  as  com- 
pared with  Harvard  and  Yale,  became  provincial  institutions; 
and  instead  of  the  Washington  or  Jefferson  of  an  earlier  day 
now  began  to  be  nourished  such  a  leader  as  "Bob"  Toombs, 
who  for  all  of  his  fire  and  eloquence  was  a  demagogue.  In 
making  its  choice  the  South  could  not  and  did  not  blame  the 
Negro  per  se,  for  it  was  freely  recognized  that  upon  slave 
labor  rested  such  economic  stability  as  the  section  possessed. 
The  tragedy  was  simply  that  thousands  of  intelligent  Ameri- 
cans deliberately  turned  their  faces  to  the  past,  and  preferred 
to  read  the  novels  of  Walter  Scott  and  live  in  the  Middle  Ages 
rather  than  study  the  French  Revolution  and  live  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  One  hundred  years  after  we  find  that  the 
chains  are  still  forged,  that  thought  is  not  yet  free.  Thus  the 
Negro  Problem  began  to  be,  and  still  is,  very  largely  the  prob- 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGtfO  PROBLEM     129 

lem  of  the  white  man  of  the  South.  The  era  of  capitalism 
had  not  yet  dawned,  and  still  far  in  the  future  was  the  day 
when  the  poor  white  man  and  the  Negro  were  slowly  to  rea- 
lize that  their  interests  were  largely  identical. 

The  argument  with  which  the  South  came  to  support  its 
position  and  to  defend  slavery  need  not  here  detain  us  at 
length.  It  was  formally  stated  by  Dew  and  others*  and  it  was 
to  be  heard  on  every  hand.  One  could  hardly  go  to  church, 
to  say  nothing  of  going  to  a  public  meeting,  without  hearing 
echoes  of  it.  In  general  it  was  maintained  that  slavery  had 
made  for  the  civilization  of  the  world  in  that  it  had  mitigated 
the  evils  of  war,  had  made  labor  profitable,  had  changed  the 
nature  of  savages,  and  elevated  woman.  The  slave-trade  was 
of  course  horrible  and  unjust,  but  the  great  advantages  of 
the  system  more  than  outweighed  a  few  attendant  evils.  Eman- 
cipation and  deportation  were  alike  impossible.  Even  if  prac- 
ticable, they  would  not  be  expedient  measures,  for  they  meant 
the  loss  to  Virginia  of  one-third  of  her  property.  As  for 
morality,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Negro  should  have 
the  sensibilities  of  the  white  man.  Moreover  the  system  had 
the  advantage  of  cultivating  a  republican  spirit  among  the 
white  people.  In  short,  said  Dew,  the  slaves,  in  both  the  eco- 
nomic and  the  moral  point  of  view,  were  "entirely  unfit  for  a 
state  of  freedom  among  the  whites."  Holland,  already  cited,  in 
1822  maintained  five  points,  as  follows:  1.  That  the  United 
States  are  one  for  national  purposes,  but  separate  for  their 
internal  regulation  and  government;  2.  That  the  people  of 
the  North  and  East  "always  exhibited  an  unfriendly  feeling 
on  subjects  affecting  the  interests  of  the  South  and  West" ; 
3.  That  the  institution  of  slavery  was  not  an  institution  of  the 
South's  voluntary  choosing;  4.  That  the  Southern  sections 
of  the  Union,  both  before  and  after  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, "had  uniformly  exhibited  a  disposition  to  restrict 
the  extension  of  the  evil — and  had  always  manifested  as  cor- 
dial a  disposition  to  ameliorate  it  as  those  of  the  North  and 
East";  and  5.  That  the  actual  state  and  condition  of  the  slave 
population  "reflected  no  disgrace  whatever  on  the  character 

*  The  Pro-Slavery  Argument  (as  maintained  by  the  most  distin- 
guished writers  of  the  Southern  states).    Charleston,  1852. 


130     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  the  country — as  the  slaves  were  infinitely  better  provided 
for  than  the  laboring  poor  of  other  countries  of  the  world, 
and  were  generally  happier  than  millions  of  white  people  in 
the  world."     Such  arguments  the  clergy  supported  and  en- 
deavored to  reconcile  with  Christian  precept.     Rev.  Dr.  Rich- 
ard Furman,  president  of  the  Baptist  Convention  of  South 
Carolina,*  after  much  inquiry  and  reasoning,  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that   "the  holding  of   slaves   is   justifiable  by  the 
doctrine  and  example  contained  in  Holy  Writ;  and  is,  there- 
fore, consistent  with  Christian  uprightness  both  in  sentiment 
and  conduct."     Said  he  further:  "The  Christian  golden  rule, 
of  doing  to  others  as  we  would  they  should  do  to  us,  has  been 
urged  as  an  unanswerable  argument  against  holding  slaves. 
But  surely  this  rule  is  never  to  be  urged  against  that  order  of 
things  which  the  Divine  government  has  established;  nor  do 
our  desires  become  a  standard  to  us,  under  this  rule,  unless 
they  have  a  due  regard  to  justice,  propriety,  and  the  general 
good.  ...  A  father  may  very  naturally  desire  that  his  son 
should  be  obedient  to  his  orders :  Is  he  therefore  to  obey  the 
orders  of  his  son?    A  man  might  be  pleased  to  be  exonerated 
from  his  debts  by  the  generosity  of  his  creditors ;  or  that  his 
rich  neighbor  should  equally  divide  his  property  with  him ;  and 
in  certain  circumstances  might  desire  these  to  be  done :  Would 
the  mere  existence  of  this  desire  oblige  him  to  exonerate  his 
debtors,  and  to  make  such  division  of  his  property?"    Calhoun 
in    1837    formally  accepted   slavery,    saying   that   the    South 
should  no  longer  apologize  for  it;  and  the  whole  argument 
from  the  standpoint  of  expediency  received  eloquent  expres- 
sion in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  from  no  less  a  man 
than  Henry  Clay,  who  more  and  more  appears  in  the  per- 
spective as  a  pro-Southern  advocate.      Said   he :   "I   am   no 
friend  of  slavery.     But  I  prefer  the  liberty  of  my  own  coun- 
try to  that  of  any  other  people;  and  the  liberty  of  my  own 
race  to  that  of  any  other  race.    The  liberty  of  the  descendants 
of  Africa  in  the  United  States  is  incompatible  with  the  safety 

*  "Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Furman's  Exposition  of  the  Views  of  the 
Baptists  relative  to  the  Coloured  Population  in  the  United  States,  in  a 
Communication  to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina."  Second  edition, 
Charleston,  1833  (letter  bears  original  date,  December  24,  1822). 


EARLY  APPROACH  TO  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  131 

and  liberty  of  the  European  descendants.  Their  slavery  forms 
an  exception — an  exception  resulting  from  a  stern  and  in- 
exorable necessity — to  the  general  liberty  in  the  United 
States."  *  After  the  lapse  of  years  the  pro-slavery  argument 
is  pitiful  in  its  numerous  fallacies.  It  was  in  line  with  much 
of  the  discussion  of  the  day  that  questioned  whether  the  Negro 
was  actually  a  human  being,  and  but  serves  to  show  to  what 
extremes  economic  interest  will  sometimes  drive  men  otherwise 
of  high  intelligence  and  honor. 

*  Address  "On  Abolition,"  February  7,  1839. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I  :  REVOLT 

We  have  already  seen  that  on  several  occasions  in  colonial 
times  the  Negroes  in  bondage  made  a  bid  for  freedom,  many 
men  risking  their  all  and  losing  their  lives  in  consequence. 
In  general  these  early  attempts  failed  completely  to  realize  their 
aim,  organization  being  feeble  and  the  leadership  untrained  and 
exerting  only  an  emotional  hold  over  adherents.  In  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  in  1822,  however,  there  was  planned  an  insur- 
rection about  whose  scope  there  could  be  no  question.  The 
leader,  Denmark  Vesey,  is  interesting  as  an  intellectual  insur- 
rectionist just  as  the  more  famous  Nat  Turner  is  typical 
of  the  more  fervent  sort.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  present 
chapter  to  study  the  attempts  for  freedom  made  by  these 
two  men,  and  also  those  of  two  daring  groups  of  captives 
who  revolted  at  sea. 

1.     Denmark  Vesey9 s  Insurrection 

Denmark  Vesey  is  first  seen  as  one  of  the  three  hundred 
and  ninety  slaves  on  the  ship  of  Captain  Vesey,  who  com- 
manded a  vessel  trading  between  St.  Thomas  and  Cape  Fran- 
cois (Santo  Domingo),  and  who  was  engaged  in  supplying 
the  French  of  the  latter  place  with  slaves.  At  the  time,  the 
boy  was  fourteen  years  old,  and  of  unusual  personal  beauty, 
alertness,  and  magnetism.  He  was  shown  considerable  favor- 
itism, and  was  called  Telemaque  (afterwards  corrupted  to 
Telmak,  and  then  to  Denmark}.  On  his  arrival  at  Cape 
Francois,  Denmark  was  sold  with  others  of  the  slaves  to  a 
planter  who  owned  a  considerable  estate.  On  his  next  trip, 
however,  Captain  Vesey  learned  that  the  boy  was  to  be  re- 
turned to  him  as  unsound  and  subject  to  epileptic  fits.     The 

132 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:    REVOLT  133 

laws  of  the  place  permitted  trie  return  of  a  slave  in  such  a 
case,  and  while  it  has  been  thought  that  Denmark's  fits  may 
have  been  feigned  in  order  that  he  might  have  some  change 
of  estate,  there  was  quite  enough  proof  in  the  matter  to  im- 
press the  king's  physician.  Captain  Vesey  never  had  reason 
to  regret  having  to  take  the  boy  back.  They  made  several 
voyages  together,  and  Denmark  served  until  1800  as  his  faith- 
ful personal  attendant.  In  this  year  the  young  man,  now 
thirty-three  years  of  age  and  living  in  Charleston,  won  $1,500 
in  an  East  Bay  Street  lottery,  $600  of  which  he  devoted  imme- 
diately to  the  purchase  of  his  freedom.  The  sum  was  much 
less  than  he  was  really  worth,  but  Captain  Vesey  liked  him 
and  had  no  reason  to>  drive  a  hard  bargain  with  him. 

In  the  early  years  of  his  full  manhood  accordingly  Den- 
mark Vesey  found  himself  a  free  man  in  his  own  right  and 
possessed  of  the  means  for  a  little  real  start  in  life.  He  im- 
proved his  time  and  proceeded  to  win  greater  standing  and 
recognition  by  regular  and  industrious  work  at  his  trade,  that 
of  a  carpenter.  Over  the  slaves  he  came  to  have  unbounded 
influence.  Among  them,  in  accordance  with  the  standards 
of  the  day,  he  had  several  wives  and  children  (none  of  whom 
could  he  call  his  own),  and  he  understood  perfectly  the  fervor 
and  faith  and  superstition  of  the  Negroes  with  whom  he  had 
to  deal.  To>  his  remarkable  personal  magnetism  moreover  he 
added  just  the  strong  passion  and  the  domineering  temper  that 
were  needed  to  make  his  conquest  complete. 

Thus  for  twenty  years  he  worked  on.  He  already  knew 
French  as  well  as  English,  but  he  now  studied  and  reflected 
upon  as  wide  a  range  of  subjects  as  possible.  It  was  not  ex- 
pected at  the  time  that  there  would  be  religious  classes  or  con- 
gregations of  Negroes  apart  from  the  white  people ;  but  the  law 
was  not  strictly  observed,  and  for  a  number  of  years  a  Negro 
congregation  had  a  church  in  Hampstead  in  the  suburbs 
of  Charleston.  At  the  meetings  here  and  elsewhere  Vesey 
found  his  opportunity,  and  he  drew  interesting  parallels  be- 
tween the  experiences  of  the  Jews  and  the  Negroes.  He  would 
rebuke  a  companion  on  the  street  for  bowing  to  a  white 
person;  and  if  such  a  man  replied,  "We  are  slaves,"  he  would 
say,  "You  deserve  to  be."     If  the  man  then  asked  what  he 


134     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

could  do  to  better  his  condition,  he  would  say,  "Go  and  buy  a 
spelling-book  and  read  the  fable  of  Hercules  and  the 
wagoner."  *  At  the  same  time  if  he  happened  to  engage  in 
conversation  with  white  people  in  the  presence  of  Negroes, 
he  would  often  take  occasion  to  introduce  some  striking 
remark  on  slavery.  He  regularly  held  up  to  emulation  the 
work  of  the  Negroes  of  Santo  Domingo;  and  either  he  or 
one  of  his  chief  lieutenants  clandestinely  sent  a  letter  to  the 
President  of  Santo  Domingo  to  ask  if  the  people  there  would 
help  the  Negroes  of  Charleston  if  the  latter  made  an  effort  to 
free  themselves. f  About  1820  moreover,  when  he  heard  of 
the  African  Colonization  scheme  and  the  opportunity  came 
to  him  to  go,  he  put  this  by,  waiting  for  something  better. 
This  was  the  period  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Reports 
of  the  agitation  and  of  the  debates  in  Congress  were  eagerly 
scanned  by  those  Negroes  in  Charleston  who  could  read; 
rumor  exaggerated  them;  and  some  of  the  more  credulous 
of  the  slaves  came  to  believe  that  the  efforts  of  Northern 
friends  had  actually  emancipated  them  and  that  they  were  be- 
ing illegally  held  in  bondage.  Nor  was  the  situation  improved 
when  the  city  marshal,  John  J.  Lafar,  on  January  15,  1821, 
reminded  those  ministers  or  other  persons  who  kept  night 
and  Sunday  schools  for  Negroes  that  the  law  forbade  the 
education  of  such  persons  and  would  have  to  be  enforced. 
Meanwhile  Vesey  was  very  patient.  After  a  few  months, 
however,  he  ceased  to  work  at  his  trade  in  order  that  all  the 
more  he  might  devote  himself  to  the  mission  of  his  life.  This 
was,  as  he  conceived  it,  an  insurrection  that  would  do  nothing 
less  than  totally  annihilate  the  white  population  of  Charles- 
ton. 

In  the  prosecution  of  such  a  plan  the  greatest  secrecy  and 
faithfulness  were  of  course  necessary,  and  Vesey  waited  until 
about  Christmas,  1821,  to  begin  active  recruiting.  He  first 
sounded  Ned  and  Rolla  Bennett,  slaves  of  Governor  Thomas 
Bennett,  and  then  Peter  Poyas  and  Jack  Purcell.  After 
Christmas  he  spoke  to  Gullah  Jack  and  Monday  Gell ;  and  Lot 
Forrester  and  Frank  Ferguson  became  his  chief  agents  for 

*  Official  Report,  19. 

t  Official  Report,  96-97,  and  Higginson,  232-3. 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:   REVOLT  135 

the  plantations  outside  of  Charleston.*  In  the  whole  matter 
of  the  choice  of  his  chief  assistants  he  showed  remarkable 
judgment  of  character.  His  penetration  was  almost  uncanny. 
"Rolla  was  plausible,  and  possessed  uncommon  self-posses- 
sion ;  bold  and  ardent,  he  was  not  to  be  deterred  from  his  pur- 
pose by  danger.  Ned's  appearance  indicated  that  he  was  a 
man  of  firm  nerves  and  desperate  courage.  Peter  was  in- 
trepid  and  resolute,  true  to  his  engagements,  and  cautious  in 
observing  secrecy  when  it  was  necessary;  he  was  not  to  be 
daunted  or  impeded  by  difficulties,  and  though  confident  of 
success,  was  careful  in  providing  against  any  obstacles  or 
casualties  which  might  arise,  and  intent  upon  discovering 
every  means  which  might  be  in  their  power  if  thought  of  be- 
forehand. Gullah  Jack  was  regarded  as  a  sorcerer,  and  as  such 
feared  by  the  natives  of  Africa,  who  believe  in  witchcraft. 
He  was  not  only  considered  invulnerable,  but  that  he  could 
make  others  so  by  his  charms;  and  that  he  could  and  cer- 
tainly would  provide  all  his  followers  with  arms.  .  .  .  His 
influence  amongst  the  Africans  was  inconceivable.  Monday 
was  firm,  resolute,  discreet,  and  intelligent."  f  He  was  also 
daring  and  active,  a  harness-maker  in  the  prime  of  life,  and 
he  could  read  and  write  with  facility ;  but  he  was  also  the  only 
man  of  prominence  in  the  conspiracy  whose  courage  failed 
him  in  court  and  who  turned  traitor.  To  these  names  must 
be  added  that  of  Batteau  Bennett,  who  was  only  eighteen 
years  old  and  who  brought  to  the  plan  all  the  ardor  and  devo- 
tion of  youth.  In  general  Vesey  sought  to  bring  into  the 
plan  those  Negroes,  such  as  stevedores  and  mechanics,  who 
worked  away  from  home  and  who  had  some  free  time.  He 
would  not  use  men  who  were  known  to  become  intoxicated, 
and  one  talkative  man  named  George  he  excluded  from  his 
meetings.  Nor  did  he  use  women,  not  because  he  did  not 
trust  them,  but  because   in  case  of  mishap   he   wanted  the 

*  Official  Report,  20.  Note  that  Higginson,  who  was  so  untiring  in 
his  research,  strangely  confuses  Jack  Purcell  and  Gullah  Jack  (p.  230). 
The  men  were  quite  distinct,  as  appears  throughout  the  report  and  from 
the  list  of  those  executed.  The  name  of  Gullah  Jack's  owner  was 
Pritchard. 

t  Official  Report,  24.  Note  that  this  remarkable  characterization  was 
given  by  the  judges,  Kennedy  and  Parker,  who  afterwards  condemned 
the  men  to  death. 


136     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

children  to  be  properly  cared  for.  "Take  care,"  said  Peter 
Poyas,  in  speaking  about  the  plan  to  one  of  the  recruits,  "and 
don't  mention  it  to  those  waiting  men  who  receive  presents 
of  old  coats,  etc.,  from  their  masters,  or  they'll  betray  us; 
I  will  speak  to  them." 

With  his  lieutenants  Vesey  finally  brought  into  the  plan 
the  Negroes  for  seventy  or  eighty  miles  around  Charleston. 
The  second  Monday  in  July,  1822,  or  Sunday,  July  14,  was 
the  time  originally  set  for  the  attack.  July  was  chosen  be- 
cause in  midsummer  many  of  the  white  people  were  away 
at  different  resorts;  and  Sunday  received  favorable  considera- 
tion because  on  that  day  the  slaves  from  the  outlying  plan- 
tations were  frequently  permitted  to  come  to  the  city.  Lists 
of  the  recruits  were  kept.  Peter  Poyas  is  said  to  have  gath- 
ered as  many  as  six  hundred  names,  chiefly  from  that  part 
of  Charleston  known  as  South  Bay  in  which  he  lived;  and 
it  is  a  mark  of  his  care  and  discretion  that  of  all  of  those 
afterwards  arrested  and  tried,  not  one  belonged  to  his  com- 
pany. Monday  Gell,  who  joined  late  and  was  very  prudent, 
had  forty-two  names.  All  such  lists,  however,  were  in  course 
of  time  destroyed.  "During  the  period  that  these  enlist- 
ments were  carrying  on,  Vesey  held  frequent  meetings  of 
the  conspirators  at  his  house;  and  as  arms  were  necessary 
to  their  success,  each  night  a  hat  was  handed  round,  and 
collections  made,  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  them,  and 
also  to1  defray  other  necessary  expenses.  A  Negro  who  was 
a  blacksmith  and  had  been  accustomed  to  make  edged  tools, 
was  employed  to  make  pike-heads  and  bayonets  with  sockets, 
to  be  fixed  at  the  ends  of  long  poles  and  used  as  pikes.  Of 
these  pike-heads  and  bayonets,  one  hundred  were  said  to  have 
been  made  at  an  early  day,  and  by  the  16th  June  as  many 
as  two  or  three  hundred,  and  between  three  and  four  hundred 
daggers."  *  A  bundle  containing  some  of  the  poles,  neatly 
trimmed  and  smoothed  off,  and  nine  or  ten  feet  long,  was 
afterwards  found  concealed  on  a  farm  on  Charleston  Neck, 
where  several  of  the  meetings  were  held,  having  been  carried 
there   to   have   the   pike-heads   and   bayonets   fixed   in   place. 

*  Official  Report,  31-32. 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:    REVOLT  137 

Governor  Bennett  stated  that  the  number  of  poles  thus  found 
was  thirteen,  but  so  wary  were  the  Negroes  that  he  and  other 
prominent  men  underestimated  the  means  of  attack.  It  was 
thought  that  the  Negroes  in  Charleston  might  use  their  mas- 
ters' arms,  while  those  from  the  country  were  to  bring  hoes, 
hatchets,  and  axes.  For  their  main  supply  of  arms,  however, 
Vesey  and  Peter  Poyas  depended  upon  the  magazines  and 
storehouses  in  the  city.  They  planned  to  seize  the  Arsenal 
in  Meeting  Street  opposite  St.  Michael's  Church;  it  was  the 
key  to  the  city,  held  the  arms  of  the  state,  and  had  for  some 
time  been  neglected.  Poyas  at  a  given  signal  at  midnight  was 
to  move  upon  this  point,  killing  the  sentinel.  Two  large  gun 
and  powder  stores  were  by  arrangement  to  be  at  the  disposal 
of  the  insurrectionists;  and  other  leaders,  coming  from  six 
different  directions,  were  to  seize  strategic  points  and  thus 
aid  the  central  work  of  Poyas.  Meanwhile  a  body  of  horse 
was  to  keep  the  streets  clear.  "Eat  only  dry  food,"  said 
Gullah  Jack  as  the  day  approached,  "parched  corn  and  ground 
nuts,  and  when  you  join  us  as  we  pass  put  this  crab  claw  in  your 
mouth  and  you  can't  be  wounded." 

On  May  25*  a  slave  of  Colonel  Prioleau,  while  on  an 
errand  at  the  wharf,  was  accosted  by  another  slave,  William 
Paul,  who  remarked :  "I  have  often  seen  a  flag  with  the  num- 
ber 76,  but  never  one  with  the  number  96  upon  it  before." 
As  this  man  showed  no  knowledge  of  what  was  going  on,  Paul 
spoke  to  him  further  and  quite  frankly  about  the  plot.  The 
slave  afterwards  spoke  to  a  free  man  about  what  he  had 
heard ;  this  man  advised  him  to  tell  his  master  about  it ;  and  so 
he  did  on  Prioleau's  return  on  May  30.  Prioleau  imme- 
diately informed  the  Intendant,  or  Mayor,  and  by  five  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  both  the  slave  and  Paul  were  being  exam- 
ined. Paul  was  placed  in  confinement,  but  not  before  his  tes- 
timony had  implicated  Peter  Poyas  and  Mingo  Harth,  a  man 
who  had  been  appointed  to  lead  one  of  the  companies  of  horse. 
Harth  and  Poyas  were  cool  and  collected,  however,  they  ridi- 
culed the  whole  idea,  and  the  wardens,  completely  deceived, 
discharged  them.     In  general  at  this  time  the  authorities  were 

*  Higginson,  215. 


138     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

careful  and  endeavored  not  to  act  hastily.  About  June  8, 
however,  Paul,  greatly  excited  and  fearing-  execution,  con- 
fessed that  the  plan  was  very  extensive  and  said  that  it  was  led 
by  an  individual  who  bore  a  charmed  life.  Ned  Bennett, 
hearing  that  his  name  had  been  mentioned,  voluntarily  went 
before  the  Intendant  and  asked  to  be  examined,  thus  again 
completely  baffling  the  officials.  All  the  while,  in  the  face  of 
the  greatest  danger,  Vesey  continued  to  hold  his  meetings. 
By  Friday,  June  14,  however,  another  informant  had  spoken 
to  his  master,  and  all  too  fully  were  Peter  Poyas's  fears  about 
"waiting-men"  justified.  This  man  said  that  the  original  plan 
had  been  changed,  for  the  night  of  Sunday,  June  16,  was 
now  the  time  set  for  the  insurrection,  and  otherwise  he  was 
able  to  give  all  essential  information.*  On  Saturday  night, 
June  15,  Jesse  Blackwood,  an  aid  sent  into  the  country  to 
prepare  the  slaves  to  enter  the  following  day,  while  he  pene- 
trated two  lines  of  guards,  was  at  the  third  line  halted  and 
sent  back  into  the  city.  Vesey  now  realized  in  a  moment  that 
all  his  plans  were  disclosed,  and  immediately  he  destroyed 
any  papers  that  might  prove  to  be  incriminating.  "On  Sun- 
day, June  16,  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  Captain  Cattle's  Corps 
of  Hussars,  Captain  Miller's  Light  Infantry,  Captain  Martin- 
dale's  Neck  Rangers,  the  Charleston  Riflemen  and  the  City 
Guard  were  ordered  to  rendezvous  for  guard,  the  whole  or- 
ganized as  a  detachment  under  command  of  Colonel  R.  Y. 
Hayne."  f  It  was  his  work  on  this  occasion  that  gave  Hayne 
that  appeal  to  the  public  which  was  later  to  help  him  to  pass 
on  to  the  governorship  and  then  to  the  United  States  Senate. 
On  the  fateful  night  twenty  or  thirty  men  from  the  outlying 
districts  who  had  not  been  able  to  get  word  of  the  progress 
of  events,  came  to  the  city  in  a  small  boat,  but  Vesey  sent 
word  to  them  to  go  back  as  quickly  as  possible. 

*  For  reasons  of  policy  the  names  of  these  informers  were  withheld 
from  publication,  but  they  were  well  known,  of  course,  to  the  Negroes 
of  Charleston.  The  published  documents  said  of  the  chief  informer,  "It 
would  be  a  libel  on  the  liberality  and  gratitude  of  this  community  to 
suppose  that  this  man  can  be  overlooked  among  those  who  are  to  be 
rewarded  for  their  fidelity  and  principle."  The  author  has  been  informed 
that  his  reward  for  betraying  his  people  was  to  be  officially  and  legally 
declared  "a  white  man." 

f  Jervey:     Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  His  Times,  131-2. 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:    REVOLT  139 

Two  courts  were  formed  for  the  trial  of  the  conspirators. 
The  first,  after  a  long  session  of  five  weeks,  was  dissolved 
July  20;  a  second  was  convened,  but  after  three  days  closed 
its  investigation  and  adjourned  August  8.*  All  the  while 
the  public  mind  was  greatly  excited.  The  first  court,  which 
speedily  condemned  thirty-four  men  to  death,  was  severely 
criticized.  The  New  York  Daily  Advertiser  termed  the  execu- 
tion "a  bloody  sacrifice" ;  but  Charleston  replied  with  the  re- 
minder of  the  Negroes  who  had  been  burned  in  New  York  in 
I74i.f  Some  of  the  Negroes  blamed  the  leaders  for  the 
trouble  into  which  they  had  been  brought,  but  Vesey  himself 
made  no  confession.  He  was  by  no  means  alone.  "Do  not 
open  your  lips,"  said  Poyas;  "die  silent  as  you  shall  see  me 
do."  Something  of  the  solicitude  of  owners  for  their  slaves 
may  be  seen  from  the  request  of  Governor  Bennett  himself 
in  behalf  of  Batteau  Bennett.  He  asked  for  a  special  review 
of  the  case  of  this  young  man,  who  was  among  those  con- 
demned to  death,  "with  a  view  to  the  mitigation  of  his  punish- 
ment." The  court  did  review  the  case,  but  it  did  not  change 
its  sentence.  Throughout  the  proceedings  the  white  people  of 
Charleston  were  impressed  by  the  character  of  those  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  insurrection;  "many  of  them  possessed  the 
highest  confidence  of  their  owners,  and  not  one  was  of  bad 
character."  % 

As  a  result  of  this  effort  for  freedom  one  hundred  and 
thirty-one  Negroes  were  arrested;  thirty-five  were  executed 
and  forty-three  banished. §  Of  those  executed,  Denmark 
Vesey,  Peter  Poyas,  Ned  Bennett,  Rolla  Bennett,  Batteau 
Bennett,  and  Jesse  Blackwood  were  hanged  July  2;  Gullah 
Jack  and  one  more  on  July  12;  twenty-two  were  hanged  on 
a  huge  gallows  Friday,  July  26;  four  more  were  hanged 
July  30,  and  one  on  August  9.  Of  those  banished,  twelve 
had  been  sentenced  for  execution,  but  were  afterwards  given 
banishment  instead;  twenty-one  were  to  be  transported  by 
their  masters  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States;  one,  a 

*  Bennett  letter. 

f  See  City  Gazette,  August  14,  1822,  cited  by  Jervey. 

$  Official  Report,  44. 

§  The  figure  is  sometimes  given  as  37,  but  the  lists  total  43. 


i4o     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

free  man,  required  to  leave  the  state,  satisfied  the  court  by 
offering  to  leave  the  United  States,  while  nine  others  who 
were  not  definitely  sentenced  were  strongly  recommended  to 
their  owners  for  banishment.  The  others  of  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty-one  were  acquitted.  The  authorities  at  length  felt 
that  they  had  executed  enough  to  teach  the  Negroes  a  lesson, 
and  the  hanging  ceased;  but  within  the  next  year  or  two 
Governor  Bennett  and  others  gave  to  the  world  most  gloomy 
reflections  upon  the  whole  proceeding  and  upon  the  grave  prob- 
lem at  their  door.  Thus  closed  the  insurrection  that  for  the 
ambitiousness  of  its  plan,  the  care  with  which  it  was  matured, 
and  the  faithfulness  of  the  leaders  to  one  another,  was  never 
equalled  by  a  similar  attempt  for  freedom  in  the  United 
States. 

2.     Nat  Turner's  Insurrection 

About  noon  on  Sunday,  August  21,  183 1,  on  the  plantation 
of  Joseph  Travis  at  Cross  Keys,  in  Southampton  County, 
in  Southeastern  Virginia,  were  gathered  four  Negroes,  Henry 
Porter,  Hark  Travis,  Nelson  Williams,  and  Sam  Francis, 
evidently  preparing  for  a  barbecue.  They  were  soon  joined 
by  a  gigantic  and  athletic  Negro  named  Will  Francis,  and 
by  another  named  Jack  Reese.  Two  hours  later  came  a  short, 
strong-looking  man  who  had  a  face  of  great  resolution  and  at 
whom  one  would  not  have  needed  to  glance  a  second  time  to 
know  that  he  was  to  be  the  master-spirit  of  the  company.  See- 
ing Will  and  his  companion  he  raised  a  question  as  to  their 
being  present,  to  which  Will  replied  that  life  was  worth  no 
more  to  him  than  the  others  and  that  liberty  was  as  dear  to 
him.  This  answer  satisfied  the  latest  comer,  and  Nat  Turner 
now  went  into  conference  with  his  most  trusted  friends.  One 
can  only  imagine  the  purpose,  the  eagerness,  and  the  firmness 
on  those  dark  faces  throughout  that  long  summer  afternoon 
and  evening.  When  at  last  in  the  night  the  low  whispering 
ceased,  the  doom  of  nearly  three-score  white  persons — and  it 
might  be  added,  of  twice  as  many  Negroes — was  sealed. 

Cross  Keys  was  seventy  miles  from  Norfolk,  just  about  as 
far    from    Richmond,    twenty-five    miles    from    the    Dismal 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I;    REVOLT  141 

Swamp,  fifteen  miles  from  Murfreesboro  in  North  Carolina, 
and  also  fifteen  miles  from  Jerusalem,  the  county  seat  of 
Southampton  County.  The  community  was  settled  primarily 
by  white  people  of  modest  means.  Joseph  Travis,  the  owner 
of  Nat  Turner,  had  recently  married  the  widow  of  one  Put- 
nam Moore. 

Nat  Turner,  who  originally  belonged  to  one  Benjamin  Turn- 
er, was  born  October  2,  1800.  He  was  mentally  precocious 
and  had  marks  on  his  head  and  breast  which  were  interpreted 
by  the  Negroes  who  knew  him  as  marking  him  for  some  high 
calling.  In  his  mature  years  he  also  had  on  his  right  arm  a 
knot  which  was  the  result  of  a  blow  which  he  had  received. 
He  experimented  in  paper,  gunpowder,  and  pottery,  and  it  is 
recorded  of  him  that  he  was  never  known  to  swear  an  oath, 
to  drink  a  drop  of  spirits,  or  to  commit  a  theft.  Instead  he 
cultivated  fasting  and  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the  Bible. 

More  and  more  Nat  gave  himself  up  to  a  life  of  the  spirit 
and  to  communion  with  the  voices  that  he  said  he  heard.  He 
once  ran  away  for  a  month,  but  felt  commanded  by  the  spirit 
to  return.  About  1825  a  consciousness  of  his  great  mission 
came  to  him,  and  daily  he  labored  to  make  himself  more 
worthy.  As  he  worked  in  the  field  he  saw  drops  of  blood  on 
the  corn,  and  he  also  saw  white  spirits  and  black  spirits  con- 
tending in  the  skies.  While  he  thus  so  largely  lived  in  a  re- 
ligious or  mystical  world  and  was  immersed,  he  was  not  a  pro- 
fessional Baptist  preacher.  On  May  12,  1828,  he  was  left  no 
longer  in  doubt.  A  great  voice  said  unto  him  that  the  Serpent 
was  loosed,  that  Christ  had  laid  down  the  yoke,  that  he,  Nat, 
was  to  take  it  up  again,  and  that  the  time  was  fast  approach- 
ing when  the  first  should  be  last  and  the  last  should  be  first. 
An  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  February,  1831,  was  interpreted  as 
the  sign  for  him  to  go  forward.  Yet  he  waited  a  little  longer, 
until  he  had  made  sure  of  his  most  important  associates.  It 
is  worthy  of  note  that  when  he  began  his  work,  while  he 
wanted  the  killing  to  be  as  effective  and  widespread  as  possible, 
he  commanded  that  no  outrage  be  committed,  and  he  was 
obeyed. 

When  on  the  Sunday  in  August  Nat  and  his  companions 
finished  their  conference,  they  went  to  find  Austin,  a  brother- 


142     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

spirit;  and  then  all  went  to  the  cider-press  and  drank  except 
Nat.  It  was  understood  that  he  as  the  leader  was  to  spill  the 
first  blood,  and  that  he  was  to  begin  with  his  own  master, 
Joseph  Travis.  Going  to  the  house,  Hark  placed  a  ladder 
against  the  chimney.  On  this  Nat  ascended ;  then  he  went 
downstairs,  unbarred  the  doors,  and  removed  the  guns  from 
their  places.  He  and  Will  together  entered  Travis's  chamber, 
and  the  first  blow  was  given  to  the  master  of  the  house.  The 
hatchet  glanced  off  and  Travis  called  to  his  wife;  but  this  was 
with  his  last  breath,  for  Will  at  once  despatched  him  with  his 
ax.  The  wife  and  the  three  children  of  the  house  were  also 
killed  immediately.  Then  followed  a  drill  of  the  company, 
after  which  all  went  to  the  home  of  Salathiel  Francis  six  hun- 
dred yards  away.  Sam  and  Will  knocked,  and  Francis  asked 
who  was  there.  Sam  replied  that  he  had  a  letter  for  him. 
The  man  came  to  the  door,  where  he  was  seized  and  killed 
by  repeated  blows  over  the  head.  He  was  the  only  white  per- 
son in  the  house.  In  silence  all  passed  on  to  the  home  of 
Mrs.  Reese,  who  was  killed  while  asleep  in  bed.  Her  son 
awoke,  but  was  also  immediately  killed.  A  mile  away  the  in- 
surrectionists came  to  the  home  of  Mrs.  Turner,  which  they 
reached  about  sunrise  on  Monday  morning.  Henry,  Austin, 
and  Sam  went  to  the  still,  where  they  found  and  killed  the 
overseer,  Peebles,  Austin  shooting  him.  Then  all  went  to  the 
house.  The  family  saw  them  coming  and  shut  the  door — to 
no  avail,  however,  as  Will  with  one  stroke  of  his  ax  opened 
it  and  entered  to  find  Mrs.  Turner  and  Mrs.  Newsome  in  the 
middle  of  the  room  almost  frightened  to  death.  Will  killed 
Mrs.  Turner  with  one  blow  of  his  ax,  and  after  Nat  had 
struck  Mrs.  Newsome  over  the  head  with  his  sword,  Will 
turned  and  killed  her  also.  By  this  time  the  company  amounted 
to  fifteen.  Nine  went  mounted  to  the  home  of  Mrs.  White- 
head and  six  others  went  along  a  byway  to  the  home  of  Henry 
Bryant.  As  they  neared  the  first  house  Richard  Whitehead, 
the  son  of  the  family,  was  standing  in  the  cotton-patch  near 
the  fence.  Will  killed  him  with  his  ax  immediately.  In  the 
house  he  killed  Mrs.  Whitehead,  almost  severing  her  head 
from  her  body  with  one  blow.  Margaret,  a  daughter,  tried  to 
conceal  herself  and  ran,  but  was  killed  by  Turner  with  a  fence- 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:    REVOLT  143 

rail.  The  men  in  this  first  company  were  now  joined  by  those 
in  the  second,  the  six  who  had  gone  to  the  Bryant  home,  who 
informed  them  that  they  had  done  the  work  assigned,  which 
was  to  kill  Henry  Bryant  himself,  his  wife  and  child,  and  his 
wife's  mother.  By  this  time  the  killing  had  become  fast  and 
furious.  The  company  divided  again;  some  would  go  ahead, 
and  Nat  would  come  up  to  find  work  already  accomplished. 
Generally  fifteen  or  twenty  of  the  best  mounted  were  put  in 
front  to  strike  terror  and  prevent  escape,  and  Nat  himself 
frequently  did  not  get  to  the  houses  where  killing  was  done. 
More  and  more  the  Negroes,  now  about  forty  in  number,  were 
getting  drunken  and  noisy.  The  alarm  was  given,  and  by  nine 
or  ten  o'clock  on  Monday  morning  one  Captain  Harris  and 
his  family  had  escaped.  Prominent  among  the  events  of  the 
morning,  however,  was  the  killing  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Waller 
of  ten  children  who  were  gathering  for  school.* 

As  the  men  neared  the  home  of  James  Parker,  it  was  sug- 
gested that  they  call  there;  but  Turner  objected,  as  this  man 

*In  "Horrid  Massacre,"  or,  to  use  the  more  formal  title,  "Authentic 
and  Impartial  Narrative  of  the  Tragical  Scene  which  was  Witnessed  in 
Southampton  County  (Virginia)  on  Monday  the  22d  of  August  Last," 
the  list  below  of  the  victims  of  Nat  Turner's  insurrection  is  given.  It 
must  be  said  about  this  work,  however,  that  it  is  not  altogether  impec- 
cable ;  it  seems  to  have  been  prepared  very  hastily  after  the  event,  its 
spelling  of  names  is  often  arbitrary,  and  instead  of  the  fifty-five  victims 
noted  it  appears  that  at  least  fifty-seven  white  persons  were  killed : 

Joseph  Travis,  wife  and  three  children 5 

Mrs.    Elizabeth   Turner,    Hartwell    Peebles,   and    Sarah    New- 
sum 3 

Mrs.  Piety  Reese  and  son,  William 2 

Traj  an  Doyal 1 

Henry  Briant,  wife  and  child,  and  wife's  mother 4 

Mrs.   Catherine  Whitehead,  her  son   Richard,   four   daughters 

and  a  grandchild 7 

Salathael  Francis   •  • 1 

Nathaniel  Francis's  overseer  and  two  children 3 

John  T.  Barrow  and  George  Vaughan 2 

Mrs.  Levi  Waller  and  ten  children 11 

Mr.  William  Williams,  wife  and  two  boys 4 

Mrs.  Caswell  Worrell  and  child 2 

Mrs.     Rebacca     Vaughan,     Ann     Eliza     Vaughan,     and     son 

Arthur    3 

Mrs.     Jacob     Williams     and     three     children     and      Edwin 
Drewry    5 

55 


144    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

had  already  gone  to  Jerusalem  and  he  himself  wished  to  reach 
the  county  seat  as  soon  as  possible.  However,  he  and  some 
of  the  men  remained  at  the  gate  while  others  went  to  the 
house  half  a  mile  away.  This  exploit  proved  to  be  the  turning- 
point  of  the  events  of  the  day.  Uneasy  at  the  delay  of  those 
who  went  to  the  house,  Turner  went  thither  also.  On  his  re- 
turn he  was  met  by  a  company  of  white  men  who  had  fired 
on  those  Negroes  left  at  the  gate  and  dispersed  them.  On 
discovering  these  men,  Turner  ordered  his  own  men  to  halt 
and  form,  as  now  they  were  beginning  to  be  alarmed.  The 
white  men,  eighteen  in  number,  approached  and  fired,  but  were 
forced  to  retreat.  Reinforcements  for  them  from  Jerusalem 
were  already  at  hand,  however,  and  now  the  great  pursuit  of 
the  Negro  insurrectionists  began. 

Hark's  horse  was  shot  under  him  and  five  or  six  of  the 
men  were  wounded.  Turner's  force  was  largely  dispersed,  but 
on  Monday  night  he  stopped  at  the  home  of  Major  Ridley, 
and  his  company  again  increased  to  forty.  He  tried  to  sleep  a 
little,  but  a  sentinel  gave  the  alarm;  all  were  soon  up  and  the 
number  was  again  reduced  to  twenty.  Final  resistance  was 
offered  at  the  home  of  Dr.  Blunt,  but  here  still  more  of  the 
men  were  put  to  flight  and  were  never  again  seen  by  Turner. 

A  little  later,  however,  the  leader  found  two  of  his  men 
named  Jacob  and  Nat.  These  he  sent  with  word  to  Henry, 
Hark,  Nelson,  and  Sam  to  meet  him  at  the  place  where  on 
Sunday  they  had  taken  dinner  together.  With  what  thoughts 
Nat  Turner  returned  alone  to  this  place  on  Tuesday  evening 
can  only  be  imagined.  Throughout  the  night  he  remained,  but 
no  one  joined  him  and  he  presumed  that  his  followers  had 
all  either  been  taken  or  had  deserted  him.  Nor  did  any  one 
come  on  Wednesday,  or  on  Thursday.  On  Thursday  night, 
having  supplied  himself  with  provisions  from  the  Travis  home, 
he  scratched  a  hole  under  a  pile  of  fence-rails,  and  here  he 
remained  for  six  weeks,  leaving  only  at  night  to  get  water. 
All  the  while  of  course  he  had  no  means  of  learning  of  the 
fate  of  his  companions  or  of  anything  else.  Meanwhile  not 
only  the  vicinity  but  the  whole  South  was  being  wrought  up 
to  an  hysterical  state  of  mind.  A  reward  of  $500  for  the  cap- 
ture of  the  man  was  offered  by  the  Governor,  and  other  re- 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:   REVOLT  145 

wards  were  also  offered.  On  September  30  a  false  account  of 
his  capture  appeared  in  the  newspapers ;  on  October  7  another ; 
on  October  8  still  another.  By  this  time  Turner  had  begun 
to  move  about  a  little  at  night,  not  speaking  to  any  human 
being  and  returning  always  to  his  hole  before  daybreak.  Early 
on  October  15  a  dog  smelt  his  provisions  and  led  thither  two 
Negroes.  Nat  appealed  to  these  men  for  protection,  but  they 
at  once  began  to  run  and  excitedly  spread  the  news.  Turner 
fled  in  another  direction  and  for  ten  days  more  hid  among 
the  wheat-stacks  on  the  Francis  plantation.  All  the  while  not 
less  than  five  hundred  men  were  on  the  watch  for  him,  and 
they  found  the  stick  that  he  had  notched  from  day  to  day. 
Once  he  thought  of  surrendering,  and  walked  within  two  miles 
of  Jerusalem.  Three  times  he  tried  to  get  away,  and  failed. 
On  October  25  he  was  discovered  by  Francis,  who  discharged 
at  him  a  load  of  buckshot,  twelve  of  which  passed  through  his 
hat,  and  he  was  at  large  for  five  days  more.  On  October  30 
Benjamin  Phipps,  a  member  of  the  patrol,  passing  a  clearing 
in  the  woods  noticed  a  motion  among  the  boughs.  He  paused, 
and  gradually  he  saw  Nat's  head  emerging  from  a  hole  be- 
neath. The  fugitive  now  gave  up  as  he  knew  that  the  woods 
were  full  of  men.  He  was  taken  to  the  nearest  house,  and 
the  crowd  was  so  great  and  the  excitement  so  intense  that  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  he  was  taken  to  Jerusalem.  For  more 
than  two  months,  from  August  25  to  October  30,  he  had  eluded 
his  pursuers,  remaining  all  the  while  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
insurrection. 

While  Nat  Turner  was  in  prison,  Thomas  C.  Gray,  his  coun- 
sel, received  from  him  what  are  known  as  his  "Confessions." 
This  pamphlet  is  now  almost  inaccessible,*  but  it  was  in  great 
demand  at  the  time  it  was  printed  and  it  is  now  the  chief 
source  for  information  about  the  progress  of  the  insurrection. 
Turner  was  tried  November  5  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  six 
days  later.  Asked  in  court  by  Gray  if  he  still  believed  in  the 
providential  nature  of  his  mission,  he  asked,  "Was  not  Christ 
crucified?"  Of  his  execution  itself  we  read:  "Nat  Turner  was 
executed  according  to  sentence,  on  Friday,  the  nth  of  Novem- 

*  The  only  copy  that  the  author  has  seen  is  that  in  the  library  of 
Harvard  University. 


146     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ber,  1 83 1,  at  Jerusalem,  between  the  hours  of  10  A.  M.  and 
2  P.  M.  He  exhibited  the  utmost  composure  throughout  the 
whole  ceremony;  and,  although  assured  that  he  might,  if  he 
thought  proper,  address  the  immense  crowd  assembled  on  the 
occasion,  declined  availing  himself  of  the  privilege;  and,  being 
asked  if  he  had  any  further  confessions  to  make,  replied  that 
he  had  nothing  more  than  he  had  communicated ;  and  told  the 
sheriff  in  a  firm  voice  that  he  was  ready.  Not  a  limb  or  muscle 
was  observed  to  move.  His  body,  after  death,  was  given  over 
to  the  surgeons  for  dissection." 

Of  fifty-three  Negroes  arraigned  in  connection  with  the 
insurrection  "seventeen  were  executed  and  twelve  transported. 
The  rest  were  discharged,  except  .  .  .  four  free  Negroes  sent 
on  to  the  Superior  Court.  Three  of  the  four  were  executed."  * 
Such  figures  as  these,  however,  give  no  conception  of  the 
number  of  those  who  lost  their  lives  in  connection  with  the 
insurrection.  In  general,  if  slaves  were  convicted  by  legal  pro- 
cess and  executed  or  transported,  or  if  they  escaped  before 
trial,  they  were  paid  for  by  the  commonwealth;  if  killed,  they 
were  not  paid  for,  and  a  man  like  Phipps  might  naturally 
desire  to  protect  his  prisoner  in  order  to  get  his  reward.  In 
spite  of  this,  the  Negroes  were  slaughtered  without  trial  and 
sometimes  under  circumstances  of  the  greatest  barbarity.  One 
man  proudly  boasted  that  he  had  killed  between  ten  and  fif- 
teen. A  party  went  from  Richmond  with  the  intention  of  kill- 
ing every  Negro  in  Southampton  County.  Approaching  the 
cabin  of  a  free  Negro  they  asked,  "Is  this  Southampton 
County?"  "Yes,  sir,"  came  the  reply,  "you  have  just  crossed 
the  line  by  yonder  tree."  They  shot  him  dead  and  rode  on. 
In  general  the  period  was  one  of  terror,  with  voluntary  patrols, 
frequently  drunk,  going  in  all  directions.  These  men  tortured, 
burned,  or  maimed  the  Negroes  practically  at  will.  Said  one 
old  woman  f  of  them :  "The  patrols  were  low  drunken  whites, 
and  in  Nat's  time,  if  they  heard  any  of  the  colored  folks 
prayin'  or  singin'  a  hymn,  they  would  fall  upon  'em  and  abuse 
'em,  and  sometimes  kill  'em.  .   .  .  The  brightest  and  best  was 

*  Drewry,  101. 

t  Charity    Bowery,   who   gave   testimony  to   L.    M.    Child,   quoted   by 
Higginson. 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I :    REVOLT  147 

killed  in  Nat's  time.  The  whites  always  suspect  such  ones. 
They  killed  a  great  many  at  a  place  called  Duplon.  They  killed 
Antonio,  a  slave  of  Mr.  J.  Stanley,  whom  they  shot;  then  they 
pointed  their  guns  at  him  and  told  him  to  confess  about  the 
insurrection.  He  told  'em  he  didn't  know  anything  about  any 
insurrection.  They  shot  several  balls  through  him,  quartered 
him,  and  put  his  head  on  a  pole  at  the  fork  of  the  road  lead- 
ing to  the  court.  ...  It  was  there  but  a  short  time.  He  had 
no  trial.  They  never  do.  In  Nat's  time,  the  patrols  would 
tie  up  the  free  colored  people,  flog  'em,  and  try  to  make  'em 
lie  against  one  another,  and  often  killed  them  before  anybody 
could  interfere.  Mr.  James  Cole,  High  Sheriff,  said  if  any  of 
the  patrols  came  on  his  plantation,  he  would  lose  his  life  in 
defense  of  his  people.  One  day  he  heard  a  patr oiler  boasting 
how  many  Negroes  he  had  killed.  Mr.  Cole  said,  Tf  you 
don't  pack  up,  as  quick  as  God  Almighty  will  let  you,  and 
get  out  of  this  town,  and  never  be  seen  in  it  again,  I'll  put 
you  where  dogs  won't  bark  at  you.'  He  went  off,  and  wasn't 
seen  in  them  parts  again." 

The  immediate  panic  created  by  the  Nat  Turner  insurrec- 
tion in  Virginia  and  the  other  states  of  the  South  it  would 
be  impossible  to  exaggerate.  When  the  news  of  what  was 
happening  at  Cross  Keys  spread,  two  companies,  on  horse  and 
foot,  came  from  Murfreesboro  as  quickly  as  possible.  On  the 
Wednesday  after  the  memorable  Sunday  night  there  came  from 
Fortress  Monroe  three  companies  and  a  piece  of  artillery. 
These  commands  were  reenforced  from  various  sources  until 
not  less  than  eight  hundred  men  were  in  arms.  Many  of  the 
Negroes  fled  to  the  Dismal  Swamp,  and  the  wildest  rumors 
were  afloat.  One  was  that  Wilmington  had  been  burned,  and 
in  Raleigh  and  Fayetteville  the  wildest  excitement  prevailed. 
In  the  latter  place  scores  of  white  women  and  children  fled 
to  the  swamps,  coming  out  two  days  afterwards  muddy, 
chilled,  and  half-starved.  Slaves  were  imprisoned  wholesale. 
In  Wilmington  four  men  were  shot  without  trial  and  their 
heads  placed  on  poles  at  the  four  corners  of  the  town.  In 
Macon,  Ga.,  a  report  was  circulated  that  an  armed  band  of 
Negroes  was  only  five  miles  away,  and  within  an  hour  the 


148     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

women  and  children  were  assembled  in  the  largest  building  in 
the  town,  with  a  military  force  in  front  for  protection. 

The  effects  on  legislation  were  immediate.  Throughout  the 
South  the  slave  codes  became  more  harsh ;  and  while  it  was 
clear  that  the  uprising  had  been  one  of  slaves  rather  than  of 
free  Negroes,  as  usual  special  disabilities  fell  upon  the  free 
people  of  color.  Delaware,  that  only  recently  had  limited  the 
franchise  to  white  men,  now  forbade  the  use  of  firearms  by 
free  Negroes  and  would  not  suffer  any  more  to  come  within 
the  state.  Tennessee  also  forbade  such  immigration,  while 
Maryland  passed  a  law  to  the  effect  that  all  free  Negroes  must 
leave  the  state  and  be  colonized  in  Africa — a  monstrous  piece 
of  legislation  that  it  was  impossible  to  put  into  effect  and 
that  showed  once  for  all  the  futility  of  attempts  at  forcible 
emigration  as  a  solution  of  the  problem.  In  general,  however, 
the  insurrection  assisted  the  colonization  scheme  and  also  made 
more  certain  the  carrying  out  of  the  policy  of  the  Jackson 
administration  to  remove  the  Indians  of  the  South  to  the 
West.  It  also  focussed  the  attention  of  the  nation  upon  the 
status  of  the  Negro,  crystallized  opinion  in  the  North,  and 
thus  helped  with  the  formation  of  anti-slavery  organizations. 
By  it  for  the  time  being  the  Negro  lost;  in  the  long  run  he 
gained. 

3.     The  "Amistad"  and  "Creole"  Cases 

On  June  28,  1839,  a  schooner,  the  Amistad,  sailed  from 
Havana  bound  for  Guanaja  in  the  vicinity  of  Puerto  Principe. 
She  was  under  the  command  of  her  owner,  Don  Ramon  Fer- 
rer, was  laden  with  merchandise,  and  had  on  board  fifty-three 
Negroes,  forty-nine  of  whom  supposedly  belonged  to  a  Span- 
iard, Don  Jose  Ruiz,  the  other  four  belonging  to  Don  Pedro 
Montes.  During  the  night  of  June  30  the  slaves,  under  the 
lead  of  one  of  their  number  named  Cinque,  rose  upon  the 
crew,  killed  the  captain,  a  slave  of  his,  and  two  sailors,  and 
while  they  permitted  most  of  the  crew  to  escape,  they  took 
into  close  custody  the  two  owners,  Ruiz  and  Montes.  Montes, 
who  had  some  knowledge  of  nautical  affairs,  was  ordered  to 
steer  the  vessel  back  to  Africa.    So  he  did  by  day,  when  the 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:   REVOLT  149 

Negroes  would  watch  him,  but  at  night  he  tried  to  make  his 
way  to  some  land  nearer  at  hand.  Other  vessels  passed  from 
time  to  time,  and  from  these  the  Negroes  bought  provisions, 
but  Montes  and  Ruiz  were  so  closely  watched  that  they  could 
not  make  known  their  plight.  At  length,  on  August  26,  the 
schooner  reached  Long  Island  Sound,  where  it  was  detained 
by  the  American  brig-of-war  Washington,  in  command  of 
Captain  Gedney,  who  secured  the  Negroes  and  took  them  to 
New  London,  Conn.  It  took  a  year  and  a  half  to  dispose  of 
the  issue  thus  raised.  The  case  attracted  the  greatest  amount 
of  attention,  led  to  international  complications,  and  was  not 
really  disposed  of  until  a  former  President  had  exhaustively 
argued  the  case  for  the  Negroes  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States. 

In  a  letter  of   September  6,    1839,   to  John  Forsyth,   the 
American  Secretary  of  State,  Calderon,  the  Spanish  minister, 
formally  made  four  demands:    1.  That  the  Amistad  be  imme- 
diately delivered  up  to  her  owner,  together  with  every  article 
on  board  at  the  time  of  her  capture;  2.  That  it  be  declared 
that  no  tribunal  in  the  United  States  had  the  right  to  insti- 
tute proceedings  against,  or  to  impose  penalties  upon,  the  sub- 
jects of  Spain,  for  crimes  committed  on  board  a  Spanish  vessel, 
and  in  the  waters  of  Spanish  territory;  3.  That  the  Negroes 
be  conveyed  to  Iiavana  or  otherwise  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
the  representatives  of  Spain;  and  4.  That  if,  in  consequence 
of  the  intervention  of  the  authorities  in  Connecticut,  there 
should  be  any  delay  in  the  desired  delivery  of  the  vessel  and 
the  slaves,  the  owners  both  of  the  latter  and  of  the  former 
be  indemnified  for  the  injury  that  might  accrue  to  them.     In 
support  of  his  demands  Calderon  invoked  "the  law  of  nations, 
the  stipulations  of  existing  treaties,  and  those  good  feelings 
so  necessary  in  the  maintenance  of  the  friendly  relations  that 
subsist  between  the  two  countries,  and  are  so  interesting  to 
both."    Forsyth  asked  for  any  papers  bearing  on  the  question, 
and  Calderon  replied  that  he  had  none  except  "the  declaration 
on  oath  of  Montes  and  Ruiz." 

Meanwhile  the  abolitionists  were  insisting  that  protection 
had  not  been  afforded  the  African  strangers  cast  on  Amer- 
ican soil  and  that  in  no  case  did  the  executive  arm  of  the 


150    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Government  have  any  authority  to  interfere  with  the  regular 
administration  of  justice.  "These  Africans,"  it  was  said,  uare 
detained  in  jail,  under  process  of  the  United  States  courts,  in 
a  free  state,  after  it  has  been  decided  by  the  District  Judge, 
on  sufficient  proof,  that  they  are  recently  from  Africa,  were 
never  the  lawful  slaves  of  Ruiz  and  Montes,"  and  "when  it 
is  clear  as  noonday  that  there  is  no  law  or  treaty  stipulation 
that  requires  the  further  detention  of  these  Africans  or  their 
delivery  to  Spain  or  its  subjects." 

Writing  on  October  24  to  the  Spanish  representative  with 
reference  to  the  arrest  of  Ruiz  and  Montes,  Forsyth  informed 
him  that  the  two  Spanish  subjects  had  been  arrested  on  pro- 
cess issuing  from  the  superior  court  of  the  city  of  New  York 
upon  affidavits  of  certain  men,  natives  of  Africa,  "for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  their  appearance  before  the  proper  tribunal, 
to  answer  for  wrongs  alleged  to  have  been  inflicted  by  them 
upon  the  persons  of  said  Africans,"  that,  consequently,  the 
occurrence  constituted  simply  a  "case  of  resort  by  individuals 
against  others  to  the  judicial  courts  of  the  country,  which 
are  equally  open  to  all  without  distinction,"  and  that  the 
agency  of  the  Government  to  obtain  the  release  of  Messrs. 
Ruiz  and  Montes  could  not  be  afforded  in  the  manner  requested. 
Further  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  by  the  Spanish  repre- 
sentative, however,  and  there  was  cited  the  case  of  Abraham 
Wendell,  captain  of  the  brig  Franklin,  who  was  prosecuted 
at  first  by  Spanish  officials  for  maltreatment  of  his  mate,  but 
with  reference  to  whom  documents  were  afterwards  sent  from 
Havana  to  America.  Much  more  correspondence  followed, 
and  Felix  Grundy,  of  Tennessee,  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States,  at  length  muddled  everything  by  the  following 
opinion:  "These  Negroes  deny  that  they  are  slaves;  if  they 
should  be  delivered  to  the  claimants,  no  opportunity  may  be 
afforded  for  the  assertion  of  their  right  to  freedom.  For 
these  reasons,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  delivery  to  the  Spanish 
minister  is  the  only  safe  course  for  this  Government  to  pur- 
sue." The  fallacy  of  all  this  was  shown  in  a  letter  dated 
November  18,  1839,  from  B.  F.  Butler,  United  States  District 
Attorney  in  New  York,  to  Aaron  Vail,  acting  Secretary  of 
State.    Said  Butler :  "It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  any  ques- 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:    REVOLT  151 

tion  has  yet  arisen  under  the  treaty  with  Spain;  because,  al- 
though it  is  an  admitted  principle,  that  neither  the  courts  of 
this  state,  nor  those  of  the  United  States,  can  take  jurisdiction 
of  criminal  offenses  committed  by  foreigners  within  the  terri- 
tory of  a  foreign  state,  yet  it  is  equally  settled  in  this  country, 
that  our  courts  will  take  cognizance  of  civil  actions  between 
foreigners  transiently  within  our  jurisdiction,  founded  upon 
contracts  or  other  transactions  made  or  had  in  a  foreign  state." 
Southern  influence  was  strong,  however,  and  a  few  weeks 
afterwards  an  order  was  given  from  the  Department  of  State 
to  have  a  vessel  anchor  off  New  Haven,  Conn.,  January  10, 
1840,  to  receive  the  Negroes  from  the  United  States  marshal 
and  take  them  to  Cuba ;  and  on  January  7  the  President,  Van 
Buren,  issued  the  necessary  warrant. 

The  rights  of  humanity,  however,  were  not  to  be  handled 
in  this  summary  fashion.  The  executive  order  was  stayed, 
and  the  case  went  further  on  its  progress  to  the  highest  tri- 
bunal in  the  land.  Meanwhile  the  anti-slavery  people  were 
teaching  the  Africans  the  rudiments  of  English  in  order  that 
they  might  be  better  able  to  tell  their  own  story.  From  the 
first  a  committee  had  been  appointed  to  look  out  for  their 
interests  and  while  they  were  awaiting  the  final  decision  in 
their  case  they  cultivated  a  garden  of  fifteen  acres. 

The  appearance  of  John  Quincy  Adams  in  behalf  of  these 
Negroes  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  Feb- 
ruary 24  and  March  1,  1841,  is  in  every  way  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  acts  in  American  history.  In  the  fullness  of  years, 
with  his  own  administration  as  President  twelve  years  behind 
him,  the  "Old  Man  Eloquent"  came  once  more  to  the  tribunal 
that  he  knew  so  well  to  make  a  last  plea  for  the  needy  and 
oppressed.  To  the  task  he  brought  all  his  talents — his  profound 
knowledge  of  law,  his  unrivaled  experience,  and  his  impres- 
sive personality;  and  his  argument  covers  135  octavo  pages. 
He  gave  an  extended  analysis  of  the  demand  of  the  Spanish 
minister,  who  asked  the  President  to  do  what  he  simply  had 
no  constitutional  right  to  do.  "The  President,"  said  Adams, 
"has  no  power  to  arrest  either  citizens  or  foreigners.  But  even 
that  power  is  almost  insignificant  compared  with  that  of  send- 
ing men  beyond  seas  to  deliver  them  up  to  a  foreign  govern- 


152    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ment."  The  Secretary  of  State  had  "degraded  the  country, 
in  the  face  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  not  only  by  allowing 
these  demands  to  remain  unanswered,  but  by  proceeding, 
throughout  the  whole  transaction,  as  if  the  Executive  were 
earnestly  desirous  to  comply  with  every  one  of  the  demands." 
The  Spanish  minister  had  naturally  insisted  in  his  demands 
because  he  had  not  been  properly  met  at  first.  The  slave-trade 
was  illegal  by  international  agreement,  and  the  only  thing  to 
do  under  the  circumstances  was  to  release  the  Negroes.  Adams 
closed  his  plea  with  a  magnificent  review  of  his  career  and 
of  the  labors  of  the  distinguished  jurists  he  had  known  in 
the  court  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  be  it  recorded  wherever 
the  name  of  Justice  is  spoken,  he  won  his  case. 

Lewis  Tappan  now  accompanied  the  Africans  on  a  tour 
through  the  states  to  raise  money  for  their  passage  home. 
The  first  meeting  was  in  Boston.  Several  members  of  the 
company  interested  the  audience  by  their  readings  from  the 
New  Testament  or  by  their  descriptions  of  their  own  country 
and  of  the  horrors  of  the  voyage.  Cinque  gave  the  impres- 
sion of  great  dignity  and  of  extraordinary  ability;  and  Kali, 
a  boy  only  eleven  years  of  age,  also  attracted  unusual  atten- 
tion. Near  the  close  of  1841,  accompanied  by  five  mission- 
aries and  teachers,  the  Africans  set  sail  from  New  York,  to 
make  their  way  first  to  Sierra  Leone  and  then  to  their  own 
homes  as  well  as  they  could. 

While  this  whole  incident  of  the  Amistad  was  still  engag- 
ing the  interest  of  the  public,  there  occurred  another  that  also 
occasioned  international  friction  and  even  more  prolonged 
debate  between  the  slavery  and  anti-slavery  forces.  On  Octo- 
ber 25,  1 84 1,  the  brig  Creole,  Captain  Ensor,  of  Richmond, 
Va.,  sailed  from  Richmond  and  on  October  27  from  Hamp- 
ton Roads,  with  a  cargo  of  tobacco  and  one  hundred  and  thirty 
slaves  bound  for  New  Orleans.  On  the  vessel  also,  aside  from 
the  crew,  were  the  captain's  wife  and  child,  and  three  or  four 
passengers,  who  were  chiefly  in  charge  of  the  slaves,  one  man, 
John  R.  Hewell,  being  directly  in  charge  of  those  belonging 
to  an  owner  named  McCargo.  About  9.30  on  the  night  of 
Sunday,  November  7,  while  out  at  sea,  nineteen  of  the  slaves 
rose,  cowed  the  others,  wounded  the  captain,  and  generally 


THE  NEGRO  REPLY,  I:    REVOLT  153 

took  command  of  the  vessel.  Madison  Washington  began  the 
uprising  by  an  attack  on  Gifford,  the  first  mate,  and  Ben  Black- 
smith, one  of  the  most  aggressive  of  his  assistants,  killed 
Hewell.  The  insurgents  seized  the  arms  of  the  vessel,  per- 
mitted no  conversation  between  members  of  the  crew  except 
in  their  hearing,  demanded  and  obtained  the  manifests  of 
slaves,  and  threatened  that  if  they  were  not  taken  to  Abaco 
or  some  other  British  port  they  would  throw  the  officers  and 
crew  overboard.  The  Creole  reached  Nassau,  New  Providence, 
on  Tuesday,  November  9,  and  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  at 
once  occasioned  intense  excitement.  Gifford  went  ashore  and 
reported  the  matter,  and  the  American  consul,  John  F.  Bacon, 
contended  to  the  English  authorities  that  the  slaves  on  board 
the  brig  were  as  much  a  part  of  the  cargo  as  the  tobacco  and 
entitled  to  the  same  protection  from  loss  to  the  owners.  The 
governor,  Sir  Francis  Cockburn,  however,  was  uncertain 
whether  to  interfere  in  the  business  at  all.  He  liberated  those 
slaves  who  were  not  concerned  in  the  uprising,  spoke  of  all  of 
the  slaves  as  "passengers,"  and  guaranteed  to  the  nineteen  who 
were  shown  by  an  investigation  to  have  been  connected  with 
the  uprising  all  the  rights  of  prisoners  called  before  an  Eng- 
lish court.  He  told  them  further  that  the  British  Government 
would  be  communicated  with  before  their  case  was  finally 
passed  upon,  that  if  they  wished  copies  of  the  informations 
these  would  be  furnished  them,  and  that  they  were  privileged 
to  have  witnesses  examined  in  refutation  of  the  charges  against 
them.  From  time  to  time  Negroes  who  were  natives  of  the 
island  crowded  about  the  brig  in  small  boats  and  intimidated 
the  American  crew,  but  when  on  the  morning  of  November  12 
the  Attorney  General  questioned  them  as  to  their  intentions 
they  replied  with  transparent  good  humor  that  they  intended 
no  violence  and  had  assembled  only  for  the  purpose  of  convey- 
ing to  shore  such  of  the  persons  on  the  Creole  as  might  be 
permitted  to  leave  and  might  need  their  assistance.  The  Attor- 
ney General  required,  however,  that  they  throw  overboard  a 
dozen  stout  cudgels  that  they  had.  Here  the  whole  case  really 
rested.  Daniel  Webster  as  Secretary  of  State  aroused  the  anti- 
slavery  element  by  making  a  strong  demand  for  the  return 
of  the  slaves,  basing  his  argument  on  the  sacredness  of  ves- 


154    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

sels  flying  the  American  flag;  but  the  English  authorities  at 
Nassau  never  returned  any  of  them.  On  March  21,  1842, 
Joshua  R.  Giddings,  untiring  defender  of  the  rights  of  the 
Negro,  offered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  resolutions  to 
the  effect  that  slavery  could  exist  only  by  positive  law  of  the 
different  states;  that  the  states  had  delegated  no  control  over 
slavery  to  the  Federal  Government,  which  alone  had  jurisdic- 
tion on  the  high  seas,  and  that,  therefore,  slaves  on  the  high 
seas  became  free  and  the  coastwise  trade  was  unconstitutional. 
The  House,  strongly  pro-Southern,  replied  with  a  vote  of  cen- 
sure and  Giddings  resigned,  but  he  was  immediately  reelected 
by  his  Ohio  constituency. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   NEGRO    REPLY,    II  :    ORGANIZATION    AND   AGITATION 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  chapter  primarily  to 
consider  social  progress  on  the  part  of  the  Negro.  A  little 
later  we  shall  endeavor  to  treat  this  interesting  subject  for 
the  period  between  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  Civil 
War.  Just  now  we  are  concerned  with  the  attitude  of  the 
Negro  himself  toward  the  problem  that  seemed  to  present 
itself  to  America  and  for  which  such  different  solutions  were 
proposed.  So  far  as  slavery  was  concerned,  we  have  seen  that 
the  remedy  suggested  by  Denmark  Vesey  and  Nat  Turner  was 
insurrection.  It  is  only  to  state  an  historical  fact,  however, 
to  say  that  the  great  heart  of  the  Negro  people  in  the  South 
did  not  believe  in  violence,  but  rather  hoped  and  prayed  for 
a  better  day  to  come  by  some  other  means.  But  what  was  the 
attitude  of  those  people,  progressive  citizens  and  thinking  lead- 
ers, who  were  not  satisfied  with  the  condition  of  the  race  and 
who  had  to  take  a  stand  on  the  issues  that  confronted  them? 
If  we  study  the  matter  from  this  point  of  view,  we  shall  find 
an  amount  of  ferment  and  unrest  and  honest  difference  of 
opinion  that  is  sometimes  overlooked  or  completely  forgotten 
in  the  questions  of  a  later  day. 

I.     Walker's  "Appeal" 

The  most  widely  discussed  book  written  by  a  Negro  in  the 
period  was  one  that  appeared  in  Boston  in  1829.  David 
Walker,  the  author,  had  been  born  in  North  Carolina  in  1785, 
of  a  free  mother  and  a  slave  father,  and  he  was  therefore 
free.*  He  received  a  fair  education,  traveled  widely  over  the 
United  States,  and  by  1827  was  living  in  Boston  as  the  pro- 

*  Adams  :   Neglected  Period  of  Anti-Slavery,  93. 

155 


156     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

prietor  of  a  second-hand  clothing  store  on  Brattle  Street.  He 
felt  very  strongly  on  the  subject  of  slavery  and  actually  seems 
to  have  contemplated  leading  an  insurrection.  In  1828  he 
addressed  various  audiences  of  Negroes  in  Boston  and  else- 
where, and  in  1829  he  published  his  Appeal,  in  four  articles; 
together  with  a  Preamble  to  the  Coloured  Citizens  of  the 
World,  but  in  particular,  and  very  expressly,  to  those  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  book  was  remarkably  success- 
ful. Appearing  in  September,  by  March  of  the  following  year 
it  had  reached  its  third  edition ;  and  in  each  successive  edition 
the  language  was  more  bold  and  vigorous.  Walker's  pro- 
jected insurrection  did  not  take  place,  and  he  himself  died  in 
1830.  While  there  was  no  real  proof  of  the  fact,  among  the 
Negro  people  there  was  a  strong  belief  that  he  met  with  foul 
play. 

Article  I  Walker  headed  "Our  Wretchedness  in  Consequence 
of  Slavery."  A  trip  over  the  United  States  had  convinced  him 
that  the  Negroes  of  the  country  were  "the  most  degraded, 
wretched  and  abject  set  of  beings  that  ever  lived  since  the 
world  began."  He  quoted  a  South  Carolina  paper  as  saying, 
"The  Turks  are  the  most  barbarous  people  in  the  world — 
they  treat  the  Greeks  more  like  brutes  than  human  beings"; 
and  then  from  the  same  paper  cited  an  advertisement  of  the 
sale  of  eight  Negro  men  and  four  women.  "Are  we  men?" 
he  exclaimed.  "I  ask  you,  O!  my  brothers,  are  we  men?  .  .  . 
Have  we  any  other  master  but  Jesus  Christ  alone  ?  Is  He  not 
their  master  as  well  as  ours?  What  right,  then,  have  we  to 
obey  and  call  any  man  master  but  Himself?  How  we  could 
be  so  submissive  to  a  gang  of  men,  whom  we  can  not  tell 
whether  they  are  as  good  as  ourselves,  or  not,  I  never  could 
conceive."  "The  whites,"  he  asserted,  "have  always  been  an 
unjust,  jealous,  unmerciful,  avaricious  and  bloodthirsty  set  of 
beings,  always  seeking  after  power  and  authority."  As  heathen 
the  white  people  had  been  cruel  enough,  but  as  Christians  they 
were  ten  times  more  so.  As  heathen  "they  were  not  quite 
so  audacious  as  to  go  and  take  vessel  loads  of  men,  women 
and  children,  and  in  cold  blood,  through  devilishness,  throw 
them  into  the  sea,  and  murder  them  in  all  kind  of  ways.  But 
being  Christians,  enlightened  and  sensible,  they  are  completely 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II:    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION  157 

prepared  for  such  hellish  cruelties."  Next  was  considered  "Our 
Wretchedness  in  Consequence  of  Ignorance."  In  general  the 
writer  maintained  that  his  people  as  a  whole  did  not  have 
intelligence  enough  to  realize  their  own  degradation;  even  if 
boys  studied  books  they  did  not  master  their  texts,  nor  did 
their  information  go  sufficiently  far  to  enable  them  actually 
to  meet  the  problems  of  life.  If  one  would  but  go  to  the 
South  or  West,  he  would  see  there  a  son  take  his  mother,  who 
bore  almost  the  pains  of  death  to  give  him  birth,  and  by  the 
command  of  a  tyrant,  strip  her  as  naked  as  she  came  into  the 
world  and  apply  the  cowhide  to  her  until  she  fell  a  victim  to 
death  in  the  road.  He  would  see  a  husband  take  his  dear  wife, 
not  un frequently  in  a  pregnant  state  and  perhaps  far  advanced, 
and  beat  her  for  an  unmerciful  wretch,  until  her  infant  fell 
a  lifeless  lump  at  her  feet.  Moreover,  "there  have  been,  and 
are  this  day,  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Balti- 
more, colored  men  who  are  in  league  with  tyrants  and  who 
receive  a  great  portion  of  their  daily  bread  of  the  moneys 
which  they  acquire  from  the  blood  and  tears  of  their  more 
miserable  brethren,  whom  they  scandalously  deliver  into  the 
hands  of  our  natural  enemies."  In  Article  III  Walker  con- 
sidered "Our  Wretchedness  in  Consequence  of  the  Preachers 
of  the  Religion  of  Jesus  Christ."  Here  was  a  fertile  field, 
which  was  only  partially  developed.  Walker  evidently  did  not 
have  at  hand  the  utterances  of  Furman  and  others  to  serve 
as  a  definite  point  of  attack.  He  did  point  out,  however,  the 
general  failure  of  Christian  ministers  to  live  up  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Christ.  "Even  here  in  Boston,"  we  are  informed, 
"pride  and  prejudice  have  got  to  such  a  pitch,  that  in  the  very 
houses  erected  to  the  Lord  they  have  built  little  places  for 
the  reception  of  colored  people,  where  they  must  sit  during 
meeting,  or  keep  away  from  the  house  of  God."  Hypocrisy 
could  hardly  go  further  than  that  of  preachers  who  could  not 
see  the  evils  at  their  door  but  could  "send  out  missionaries 
to  convert  the  heathen,  notwithstanding."  Article  IV  was 
headed  "Our  Wretchedness  in  Consequence  of  the  Colonizing 
Plan."  This  was  a  bitter  arraignment,  especially  directed 
against  Henry  Clay.  "I  appeal  and  ask  every  citizen  of  these 
United  States,"  said  Walker,  "and  of  the  world,  both  white 


158    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  black,  who  has  any  knowledge  of  Mr.  Clay's  public  labors 
for  these  states — I  want  you  candidly  to  answer  the  Lord, 
who  sees  the  secrets  of  your  hearts,  Do  you  believe  that  Mr. 
Henry  Clay,  late  Secretary  of  State,  and  now  in  Kentucky,  is 
a  friend  to  the  blacks  further  than  his  personal  interest  ex- 
tends? .  .  .  Does  he  care  a  pinch  of  snuff  about  Africa — 
whether  it  remains  a  land  of  pagans  and  of  blood,  or  of  Chris- 
tians, so  long  as  he  gets  enough  of  her  sons  and  daughters 
to  dig  up  gold  and  silver  for  him?  .  .  .  Was  he  not  made  by 
the  Creator  to  sit  in  the  shade,  and  make  the  blacks  work  with- 
out remuneration  for  their  services,  to  support  him  and  his 
family?  I  have  been  for  some  time  taking  notice  of  this  man's 
speeches  and  public  writings,  but  never  to  my  knowledge  have 
I  seen  anything  in  his  writings  which  insisted  on  the  emanci- 
pation of  slavery,  which  has  almost  ruined  his  country." 
Walker  then  paid  his  compliments  to  Elias  B.  Caldwell  and 
John  Randolph,  the  former  of  whom  had  said,  "The  more  you 
improve  the  condition  of  these  people,  the  more  you  cultivate 
their  minds,  the  more  miserable  you  make  them  in  their  pres- 
ent state."  "Here,"  the  work  continues,  "is  a  demonstrative 
proof  of  a  plan  got  up,  by  a  gang  of  slaveholders,  to  select 
the  free  people  of  color  from  among  the  slaves,  that  our  more 
miserable  brethren  may  be  the  better  secured  in  ignorance  and 
wretchedness,  to  work  their  farms  and  dig  their  mines,  and 
thus  go  on  enriching  the  Christians  with  their  blood  and 
groans.  What  our  brethren  could  have  been  thinking  about, 
who  have  left  their  native  land  and  gone  away  to  Africa,  I 
am  unable  to  say.  .  .  .  The  Americans  may  say  or  do  as  they 
please,  but  they  have  to  raise  us  from  the  condition  of  brutes 
to  that  of  respectable  men,  and  to  make  a  national  acknowledg- 
ment to  us  for  the  wrongs  they  have  inflicted  on  us.  .  .  . 
You  may  doubt  it,  if  you  please.  I  know  that  thousands  will 
doubt — they  think  they  have  us  so  well  secured  in  wretched- 
ness, to  them  and  their  children,  that  it  is  impossible  for  such 
things  to  occur.  So  did  the  antediluvians  doubt  Noah,  until 
the  day  in  which  the  flood  came  and  swept  them  away.  So 
did  the  Sodomites  doubt,  until  Lot  had  got  out  of  the  city, 
and  God  rained  down  fire  and  brimstone  from  heaven  upon 
them  and  burnt  them  up.    So  did  the  king  of  Egypt  doubt  the 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II:    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION   159 

very  existence  of  God,  saying,  'Who  is  the  Lord,  that  I  should 
let  Israel  go?'  ...  So  did  the  Romans  doubt.  .  .  .  But  they 
got  dreadfully  deceived." 

This  document  created  the  greatest  consternation  in  the 
South.  The  Mayor  of  Savannah  wrote  to  Mayor  Otis  of  Bos- 
ton, demanding  that  Walker  be  punished.  Otis,  in  a  widely 
published  letter,  replied  expressing  his  disapproval  of  the 
pamphlet,  but  saying  that  the  author  had  done  nothing  that 
made  him  ' 'amenable"  to  the  laws.  In  Virginia  the  legislature 
considered  passing  an  "extraordinary  bill,"  not  only  forbidding 
the  circulation  of  such  seditious  publications  but  forbidding 
the  education  of  free  Negroes.  The  bill  passed  the  House  of 
Delegates,  but  failed  in  the  Senate.  The  Appeal  even  found 
its  way  to  Louisiana,  where  there  were  already  rumors  of  an 
insurrection,  and  immediately  a  law  was  passed  expelling  all 
free  Negroes  who  had  come  to  the  state  since  1825. 

2.     The  Convention  Movement 

As  may  be  inferred  from  Walker's  attitude,  the  representa- 
tive men  of  the  race  were  almost  a  unit  in  their  opposition 
to  colonization.  They  were  not  always  opposed  to  coloniza- 
tion itself,  for  some  looked  favorably  upon  settlement  in 
Canada,  and  a  few  hundred  made  their  way  to  the  West 
Indies.  They  did  object,  however,  to  the  plan  offered  by  the 
American  Colonization  Society,  which  more  and  more  im- 
pressed them  as  a  device  on  the  part  of  slaveholders  to  get 
free  Negroes  out  of  the  country  in  order  that  slave  labor  might 
be  more  valuable.  Richard  Allen,  bishop  of  the  African  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  the  foremost  Negro  of  the  period, 
said:  "We  were  stolen  from  our  mother  country  and  brought 
here.  We  have  tilled  the  ground  and  made  fortunes  for  thou- 
sands, and  still  they  are  not  weary  of  our  services.  But  they 
who  stay  to  till  the  ground  must  be  slaves.  Is  there  not  land 
enough  in  America,  or  'corn  enough  in  Egypt'?  Why  should 
they  send  us  into  a  far  country  to  die?  See  the  thousands  of 
foreigners  emigrating  to  America  every  year:  and  if  there  be 
ground  sufficient  for  them  to  cultivate,  and  bread  for  them 
to  eat,  why  would  they  wish  to  send  the  first  tillers  of  the 


160    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

land  away?  Africans  have  made  fortunes  for  thousands,  who 
are  yet  unwilling  to  part  with  their  services ;  but  the  free  must 
be  sent  away,  and  those  who  remain  must  be  slaves.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  there  are  many  good  men  who  do  not  see  as  I 
do,  and  who  are  sending  us  to  Liberia;  but  they  have  not  duly 
considered  the  subject — they  are  not  men  of  color.  This  land 
which  we  have  watered  with  our  tears  and  our  blood  is  now 
our  mother  country,  and  we  are  well  satisfied  to  stay  where 
wisdom  abounds  and  the  gospel  is  free."  *  This  point  of  view 
received  popular  expression  in  a  song  which  bore  the  cumber- 
some title,  "The  Colored  Man's  Opinion  of  Colonization,"  and 
which  was  sung  to  the  tune  of  "Home,  Sweet  Home."  The 
first  stanza  was  as  follows : 

Great  God,  if  the  humble  and  weak  are  as  dear 
To  thy  love  as  the  proud,  to  thy  children  give  ear ! 
Our  brethren  would  drive  us  in  deserts  to  roam; 
Forgive  them,  O  Father,  and  keep  us  at  home. 

Home,  sweet  home! 
We  have  no  other;  this,  this  is  our  home.f 

To  this  sentiment  formal  expression  was  given  in  the  meas- 
ures adopted  at  various  Negro  meetings  in  the  North.  In 
1 8 17  the  greatest  excitement  was  occasioned  by  a  report  that 
through  the  efforts  of  the  newly-formed  Colonization  Society 
all  free  Negroes  were  forcibly  to  be  deported  from  the  coun- 
try. Resolutions  of  protest  were  adopted,  and  these  were  wide- 
ly circulated.!  Of  special  importance  was  the  meeting  in 
Philadelphia  in  January,  presided  over  by  James  Forten.  Of 
this  the  full  report  is  as  follows : 

At  a  numerous  meeting  of  the  people  of  color,  convened  at  Bethel 
Church,  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  remonstrating 
against  the  contemplated  measure  that  is  to  exile  us  from  the  land 
of  our  nativity,  James  Forten  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  Russell 
Parrott  appointed  secretary.  The  intent  of  the  meeting  having  been 
stated  by  the  chairman,  the  following  resolutions  were  adopted  with- 
out one  dissenting  voice : 

*  Freedom's  Journal,  November  2,  1827,  quoted  by  Walker. 
t  Anti-Slavery  Picknick,  105-107. 

%  They  are  fully  recorded  in  Garrison's  Thoughts  on  African  Coloniza- 
tion. 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II :    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION  161 

Whereas,  Our  ancestors  (not  of  choice)  were  the  first  successful 
cultivators  of  the  wilds  of  America,  we  their  descendants  feel  our- 
selves entitled  to  participate  in  the  blessings  of  her  luxuriant  soil, 
which  their  blood  and  sweat  manured;  and  that  any  measure  or  sys- 
tem of  measures,  having  a  tendency  to  banish  us  from  her  bosom, 
would  not  only  be  cruel,  but  in  direct  violation  of  those  principles 
which  have  been  the  boast  of  this  republic, 

Resolved,  That  we  view  with  deep  abhorrence  the  unmerited 
stigma  attempted  to  be  cast  upon  the  reputation  of  the  free  people  of 
color,  by  the  promoters  of  this  measure,  "that  they  are  a  dangerous 
and  useless  part  of  the  community,"  when  in  the  state  of  disfranchise- 
ment in  which  they  live,  in  the  hour  of  danger  they  ceased  to  remem- 
ber their  wrongs,  and  rallied  around  the  standard  of  their  country. 

Resolved,  That  we  never  will  separate  ourselves  voluntarily  from 
the  slave  population  of  this  country;  they  are  our  brethren  by  the 
ties  of  consanguinity,  of  suffering,  and  of  wrong;  and  we  feel  that 
there  is  more  virtue  in  suffering  privations  with  them,  than  fancied 
advantages  for  a  season. 

Resolved,  That  without  arts,  without  science,  without  a  proper 
knowledge  of  government  to  cast  upon  the  savage  wilds  of  Africa 
the  free  people  of  color,  seems  to  us  the  circuitous  route  through 
which  they  must  return  to  perpetual  bondage. 

Resolved,  That  having  the  strongest  confidence  in  the  justice  of 
God,  and  philanthropy  of  the  free  states,  we  cheerfully  submit  our 
destinies  to  the  guidance  of  Him  who  suffers  not  a  sparrow  to  fall 
without  his  special  providence. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  eleven  persons  be  appointed  to  open 

a  correspondence  with  the  honorable  Joseph  Hopkinson,  member  of 

Congress  from  this  city,  and  likewise  to  inform  him  of  the  sentiments 

of  this  meeting,  and  that  the  following  named  persons  constitute  the 

committee,  and  that  they  have  power  to  call  a  general  meeting,  when 

they,  in  their  judgment,  may  deem  it  proper :     Rev.  Absalom  Jones, 

Rev.  Richard  Allen,  James  Forten,  Robert  Douglass,  Francis  Perkins, 

Rev.  John   Gloucester,   Robert   Gorden,   James  Johnson,    Quamoney 

Clarkson,  John  Summersett,  Randall  Shepherd. 

_  _  James  Forten,  Chairman. 

Russell  Parrott,  Secretary. 

In  1827,  in  New  York,  was  begun  the  publication  of  Free- 
dom's Journal,  the  first  Negro  newspaper  in  the  United  States. 
The  editors  were  John  B.  Russwurm  and  Samuel  E.  Cornish. 
Russwurm  was  a  recent  graduate  of  Bowdoin  College  and  was 
later  to  become  better  known  as  the  governor  of  Maryland  in 
Africa.  By  1830  feeling  was  acute  throughout  the  country, 
especially  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  and  on  the  part  of  Negro 


1 62     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

men  had  developed  the  conviction  that  the  time  had  come  for 
national  organization  and  protest. 

In  the  spring  of  1830  Hezekiah  Grice  of  Baltimore,  who 
had  become  personally  acquainted  with  the  work  of  Lundy 
and  Garrison,  sent  a  letter  to  prominent  Negroes  in  the  free 
states  bringing  in  question  the  general  policy  of  emigration.* 
He  received  no  immediate  response,  but  in  August  he  received 
from  Richard  Allen  an  urgent  request  to  come  at  once  to 
Philadelphia.  Arriving  there  he  found  in  session  a  meeting 
discussing  the  wisdom  of  emigration  to  Canada,  and  Allen 
"showed  him  a  printed  circular  signed  by  Peter  Williams, 
rector  of  St.  Philip's  Church,  New  York,  Peter  Vogelsang 
and  Thomas  L.  Jennings  of  the  same  place,  approving  the 
plan  of  convention."  f  The  Philadelphians  now  issued  a  call 
for  a  convention  of  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States  to  be 
held  in  their  city  September  15,  1830. 

This  September  meeting  was  held  in  Bethel  A.  M.  E. 
Church.  Bishop  Richard  Allen  was  chosen  president,  Dr.  Bel- 
fast Burton  of  Philadelphia  and  Austin  Steward  of  Rochester 
vice-presidents,  Junius  C.  Morell  of  Pennsylvania  secretary, 
and  Robert  Cowley  of  Maryland  assistant  secretary.  There 
were  accredited  delegates  from  seven  states.  While  this  meet- 
ing might  really  be  considered  the  first  national  convention  of 
Negroes  in  the  United  States  (aside  of  course  from  the  gath- 
ering of  denominational  bodies),  it  seems  to  have  been  re- 
garded merely  as  preliminary  to  a  still  more  formal  assembling, 
for  the  minutes  of  the  next  year  were  printed  as  the  "Minutes 
and  Proceedings  of  the  First  Annual  Convention  of  the  Peo- 
ple of  Color,  held  by  adjournments  in  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia, from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  of  June,  inclusive,  1831. 
Philadelphia,  1831."  The  meetings  of  this  convention  were 
held  in  the  Wesleyan  Church  on  Lombard  Street.  Richard 
Allen  had  died  earlier  in  the  year  and  Grice  was  not  present ; 
not  long  afterwards  he  emigrated  to  Hayti,  where  he  became 
prominent  as  a  contractor.  Rev.  James  W.  C.  Pennington  of 
New  York,  however,  now  for  the  first  time  appeared  on  the 
larger  horizon  of  race  affairs;  and  John  Bowers  of  Philadel- 

*John  W.  Cromwell:    The  Early  Negro  Convention  Movement. 
t  Ibid.,  5. 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II:    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION   163 

phia  served  as  president,  Abraham  D.  Shadd  of  Delaware  and 
William  Duncan  of  Virginia  as  vice-presidents,  William  Whip- 
per  of  Philadelphia  as  secretary,  and  Thomas  L.  Jennings  of 
New  York  as  assistant  secretary.  Delegates  from  five  states 
were  present.  The  gathering  was  not  large,  but  it  brought 
together  some  able  men ;  moreover,  the  meeting  had  some  dis- 
tinguished visitors,  among  them  Benjamin  Lundy,  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  Rev.  S.  S.  Jocelyn  of  New  Haven,  and  Arthur 
Tappan  of  New  York. 

The  very  first  motion  of  the  convention  resolved  "That  a 
committee  be  appointed  to  institute  an  inquiry  into  the  condi- 
tion of  the  free  people  of  color  throughout  the  United  States, 
and  report  their  views  upon  the  subject  at  a  subsequent  meet- 
ing." As  a  result  of  its  work  this  committee  recommended 
that  the  work  of  organizations  interested  in  settlement  in  Can- 
ada be  continued;  that  the  free  people  of  color  be  annually 
called  to  assemble  by  delegation;  and  it  submitted  "the  neces- 
sity of  deliberate  reflection  on  the  dissolute,  intemperate,  and 
ignorant  condition  of  a  large  portion  of  the  colored  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States."  "And,  lastly,  your  Committee 
view  with  unfeigned  regret,  and  respectfully  submit  to  the 
wisdom  of  this  Convention,  the  operations  and  misrepresenta- 
tions of  the  American  Colonization  Society  in  these  United 
States.  .  .  .  We  feel  sorrowful  to  see  such  an  immense  and 
wanton  waste  of  lives  and  property,  not  doubting  the  benevo- 
lent feelings  of  some  individuals  engaged  in  that  cause.  But 
we  can  not  for  a  moment  doubt  but  that  the  cause  of  many 
of  our  unconstitutional,  unchristian,  and  unheard-of  suffer- 
ings emanate  from  that  unhallowed  source ;  and  we  would  call 
on  Christians  of  every  denomination  firmly  to  resist  it."  The 
report  was  unanimously  received  and  adopted. 

Jocelyn,  Tappan,  and  Garrison  addressed  the  convention 
with  reference  to  a  proposed  industrial  college  in  New  Haven, 
toward  the  $20,000  expense  of  which  one  individual  (Tappan 
himself)  had  subscribed  $1000  with  the  understanding  that 
the  remaining  $19,000  be  raised  within  a  year;  and  the  con- 
vention approved  the  project,  provided  the  Negroes  had  a 
majority  of  at  least  one  on  the  board  of  trustees.  An  illu- 
minating address  to  the  public  called  attention  to  the  progress 


164    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  emancipation  abroad,  to  the  fact  that  it  was  American  per- 
secution that  led  to  the  calling  of  the  convention,  and  that  it 
was  this  also  that  first  induced  some  members  of  the  race  to 
seek  an  asylum  in  Canada,  where  already  there  were  two  hun- 
dred log  houses,  and  five  hundred  acres  under  cultivation. 

In  1832  eight  states  were  represented  by  a  total  of  thirty 
delegates.  By  this  time  we  learn  that  a  total  of  eight  hundred 
acres  had  been  secured  in  Canada,  that  two  thousand  Negroes 
had  gone  thither,  but  that  considerable  hostility  had  been  mani- 
fested on  the  part  of  the  Canadians.  Hesitant,  the  convention 
appointed  an  agent  to  investigate  the  situation.  It  expressed 
itself  as  strongly  opposed  to  any  national  aid  to  the  American 
Colonization  Society  and  urged  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia — all  of  which  activity,  it  is  well  to  re- 
member, was  a  year  before  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society 
was  organized. 

In  1833  there  were  fifty-eight  delegates,  and  Abraham 
Shadd,  now  of  Washington,  was  chosen  president.  The  con- 
vention again  gave  prominence  to  the  questions  of  Canada  and 
colonization,  and  expressed  itself  with  reference  to  the  new 
law  in  Connecticut  prohibiting  Negroes  from  other  states  from 
attending  schools  within  the  state.  The  1834  meeting  was  held 
in  New  York.  Prudence  Crandall  *  was  commended  for  her 
stand  in  behalf  of  the  race,  and  July  4  was  set  apart  as  a  day 
for  prayer  and  addresses  on  the  condition  of  the  Negro 
throughout  the  country.  By  this  time  we  hear  much  of  so- 
cieties for  temperance  and  moral  reform,  especially  of  the  so- 
called  Phcenix  Societies  "for  improvement  in  general  culture 
— literature,  mechanic  arts,  and  morals."  Of  these  organiza- 
tions Rev.  Christopher  Rush,  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Zion  Church, 
was  general  president,  and  among  the  directors  were  Rev. 
Peter  Williams,  Boston  Crummell,  the  father  of  Alexander 
Crummell,  and  Rev.  William  Paul  Quinn,  afterwards  a  well- 
known  bishop  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Church.  The  1835  an<^  J^3^ 
meetings  were  held  in  Philadelphia,  and  especially  were  the 
students  of  Lane  Seminary  in  Cincinnati  commended  for  their 
zeal  in  the  cause  of  abolition.    A  committee  was  appointed  to 

*  See  Chapter  X,  Section  3. 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II :    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION   165 

look  into  the  dissatisfaction  of  some  emigrants  to  Liberia  and 
generally  to  review  the  work  of  the  Colonization  Society. 

In  the  decade  1837-1847  Frederick  Douglass  was  outstand- 
ing as  a  leader,  and  other  men  who  were  now  prominent  were 
Dr.  James  McCune  Smith,  Rev.  James  W.  C.  Pennington, 
Alexander  Crummell,  William  C.  Nell,  and  Martin  R.  Delany. 
These  are  important  names  in  the  history  of  the  period.  These 
were  the  men  who  bore  the  brunt  of  the  contest  in  the  furious 
days  of  Texas  annexation  and  the  Compromise  of  1850.  About 
1853  and  1854  there  was  renewed  interest  in  the  idea  of  an 
industrial  college;  steps  were  taken  for  the  registry  of  Negro 
mechanics  and  artisans  who  were  in  search  of  employment, 
and  of  the  names  of  persons  who  were  willing  to  give  them 
work;  and  there  was  also  a  committee  on  historical  records 
and  statistics  that  was  not  only  to  compile  studies  in  Negro 
biography  but  also  to  reply  to  any  assaults  of  note.* 

Immediately  after  the  last  of  the  conventions  just  mentioned, 
those  who  were  interested  in  emigration  and  had  not  been 
able  to  get  a  hearing  in  the  regular  convention  issued  a  call 
for  a  National  Emigration  Convention  of  Colored  Men  to 
take  place  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  August  24-26,  1854.  The  pre- 
liminary announcement  said:  "No  person  will  be  admitted  to 
a  seat  in  the  Convention  who  would  introduce  the  subject  of 
emigration  to  the  Eastern  Hemisphere — either  to  Asia,  Africa, 
or  Europe — as  our  object  and  determination  are  to  consider 
our  claims  to  the  West  Indies,  Central  and  South  America, 
and  the  Canadas.  This  restriction  has  no  reference  to  per- 
sonal preference,  or  individual  enterprise,  but  to  the  great 
question  of  national  claims  to  come  before  the  Convention."  f 
Douglass  pronounced  the  call  "uncalled  for,  unwise,  unfor- 
tunate and  premature,"  and  his  position  led  him  into  a  wordy 
discussion  in  the  press  with  James  M.  Whitfield,  of  Buffalo, 
prominent  at  the  time  as  a  writer.    Delany  explained  the  call 

*  We  can  not  too  much  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  this 
period  were  by  no  means  impractical  theorists  but  men  who  were  scien- 
tifically approaching  the  social  problem  of  their  people.  They  not  only 
anticipated  such  ideas  as  those  of  industrial  education  and  of  the  National 
Urban  League  of  the  present  day,  but  they  also  endeavored  to  lay  firmly 
the  foundations  of  racial  self-respect. 

t  Official  Report  of  the  Niger  Valley  Exploring  Party,  by  M.  R. 
Delany,  Chief  Commissioner  to  Africa,  New  York,  1861. 


1 66    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

as  follows :  "It  was  a  mere  policy  on  the  part  of  the  authors 
of  these  documents,  to  confine  their  scheme  to  America  (in- 
cluding the  West  Indies),  whilst  they  were  the  leading  advo- 
cates of  the  regeneration  of  Africa,  lest  they  compromised 
themselves  and  their  people  to  the  avowed  enemies  of  their 
race."  *  At  the  secret  sessions,  he  informs  us,  Africa  was  the 
topic  of  greatest  interest.  In  order  to  account  for  this  posi- 
tion it  is  important  to  take  note  of  the  changes  that  had  taken 
place  between  1817  and  1854.  When  James  Forten  and  others 
in  Philadelphia  in  181 7  protested  against  the  American  Col- 
onization Society  as  the  plan  of  a  "gang  of  slaveholders"  to 
drive  free  people  from  their  homes,  they  had  abundant  ground 
for  the  feeling.  By  1839,  however,  not  only  had  the  personnel 
of  the  organization  changed,  but,  largely  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Garrison,  the  purpose  and  aim  had  also  changed,  and 
not  Virginia  and  Maryland,  but  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
were  now  dominant  in  influence.  Colonization  had  at  first 
been  regarded  as  a  possible  solution  of  the  race  problem; 
money  was  now  given,  however,  "rather  as  an  aid  to  the 
establishment  of  a  model  Negro  republic  in  Africa,  whose 
effort  would  be  to  discourage  the  slave-trade,  and  encourage 
energy  and  thrift  among  those  free  Negroes  from  the  United 
States  who  chose  to  emigrate,  and  to  give  native  Africans  a 
demonstration  of  the  advantages  of  civilization."  f  In  view 
of  the  changed  conditions,  Delany  and  others  who  disagreed 
with  Douglass  felt  that  for  the  good  of  the  race  in  the  United 
States  the  whole  matter  of  emigration  might  receive  further 
consideration ;  at  the  same  time,  remembering  old  discussions, 
they  did  not  wish  to  be  put  in  the  light  of  betrayers  of  their 
people.  The  Pittsburgh  Daily  Morning  Post  of  October  18, 
1854,  sneered  at  the  new  plan  as  follows:  "If  Dr.  Delany 
drafted  this  report  it  certainly  does  him  much  credit  for  learn- 
ing and  ability;  and  can  not  fail  to  establish  for  him  a  repu- 
tation for  vigor  and  brilliancy  of  imagination  never  yet  sur- 
passed. It  is  a  vast  conception  of  impossible  birth.  The  Com- 
mittee seem  to  have  entirely  overlooked  the  strength  of  the 

*  Delany,  8. 

tFox:     The  American  Colonisation  Society,   177;   also  note  pp.   12, 
120-2. 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II :    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION   167 

'powers  on  earth'  that  would  oppose  the  Africanization  of 
more  than  half  the  Western  Hemisphere.  We  have  no  motive 
in  noticing  this  gorgeous  dream  of  'the  Committee'  except  to 
show  its  fallacy — its  impracticability,  in  fact,  its  absurdity. 
No  sensible  man,  whatever  his  color,  should  be  for  a  moment 
deceived  by  such  impracticable  theories."  However,  in  spite 
of  all  opposition,  the  Emigration  Convention  met.  Upon  De- 
lany  fell  the  real  brunt  of  the  work  of  the  organization.  In 
1855  Bishop  James  Theodore  Holly  was  commissioned  to 
Faustin  Soulouque,  Emperor  of  Hayti;  and  he  received  in  his 
visit  of  a  month  much  official  attention  with  some  induce- 
ment to  emigrate.  Delany  himself  planned  to>  go  to  Africa 
as  the  head  of  a  "Niger  Valley  Exploring  Party."  Of  the 
misrepresentation  and  difficulties  that  he  encountered  he  him- 
self has  best  told.  He  did  get  to  Africa,  however,  and  he 
had  some  interesting  and  satisfactory  interviews  with  repre- 
sentative chiefs.  The  Civil  War  put  an  end  to  his  project, 
he  himself  accepting  a  major's  commission  from  President 
Lincoln.  Through  the  influence  of  Holly  about  two  thousand 
persons  went  to  Hayti,  but  not  more  than  a  third  of  these  re- 
mained. A  plan  fostered  by  Whitfield  for  a  Colony  in  Central 
America  came  to  naught  when  this  leading  spirit  died  in  San 
Francisco  on  his  way  thither.* 

3.    Sojourner  Truth  and  Woman  Suffrage 

With  its  challenge  to  the  moral  consciousness  it  was  but 
natural  that  anti-slavery  should  soon  become  allied  with  tem- 
perance, woman  suffrage,  and  other  reform  movements  that 
were  beginning  to  appeal  to  the  heart  of  America.  Especially 
were  representative  women  quick  to  see  that  the  arguments 
used  for  their  cause  were  very  largely  identical  with  those  used 
for  the  Negro.  When  the  woman  suffrage  movement  was 
launched  at  Seneca  Falls,  N.  Y.,  in  1848,  Lucretia  Mott,  Eliza- 
beth Cady  Stanton,  and  their  co-workers  issued  a  Declaration 
of  Sentiments  which  like  many  similar  documents  copied  the 
phrasing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.    This  said  in 

*For  the  progress  of  all  the  plans  offered  to  the  convention  note 
important  letter  written  by  Holly  and  given  by  Cromwell,  20-21, 


i68    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

part :  "The  history  of  mankind  is  a  history  of  repeated  injuries 
and  usurpations  on  the  part  of  man  towards  woman,  having 
in  direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  absolute  tyranny  over 
her.  .  .  .  He  has  never  permitted  her  to  exercise  her  inalien- 
able right  to  the  elective  franchise.  .  .  .  He  has  made  her,  if 
married,  in  the  eye  of  the  law  civilly  dead.  .  .  .  He  has  denied 
her  the  facilities  for  obtaining  a  thorough  education,  all  col- 
leges being  closed  to  her."  It  mattered  not  at  the  time  that 
male  suffrage  was  by  no  means  universal,  or  that  ameliora- 
tion of  the  condition  of  woman  had  already  begun ;  the  move- 
ment stated  its  case  clearly  and  strongly  in  order  that  it  might 
fully  be  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  American  people.  In 
1850  the  first  formal  National  Woman's  Rights  Convention 
assembled  in  Worcester,  Mass.  To  this  meeting  came  a  young 
Quaker  woman  who  was  already  listed  in  the  cause  of  tem- 
perance. In  fact,  wherever  she  went  Susan  B^  Anthony  en- 
tered into  "causes."  She  possessed  great  virtues  and  abilities, 
and  at  the  same  time  was  capable  of  very  great  devotion.  "She 
not  only  sympathized  with  the  Negro;  when  an  opportunity 
offered  she  drank  tea  with  him,  to  her  own  'unspeakable  satis- 
faction.' "*  Lucy  Stone,  an  Oberlin  graduate,  was  representa- 
tive of  those  who  came  into  the  agitation  by  the  anti-slavery 
path.  Beginning  in,  1848  to  speak  as  an  agent  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  almost  from  the  first  she  began  to  introduce 
the  matter  of  woman's  rights  in  her  speeches. 

To  the  second  National  Woman's  Suffrage  Convention, 
held  in  Akron,  Ohio,  in  1852,  and  presided  over  by  Mrs.  Fran- 
ces D.  Gage,  came  Sojourner  Truth. 

The  "Libyan  Sibyl"  was  then  in  the  fullness  of  her  powers. 
She  had  been  born  of  slave  parents  about  1798  in  Ulster 
County,  New  York.  In  her  later  years  she  remembered  vividly 
the  cold,  damp  cellar-room  in  which  slept  the  slaves  of  the 
family  to  which  she  belonged,  and  where  she  was  taught  by 
her  mother  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  to  trust  in  God. 
When  in  the  course  of  gradual  emancipation  she  became  legally 
free  in  1827,  her  master  refused  to  comply  with  the  law  and 

*Ida  M.  Tarbell:  "The  American  Woman:  Her  First  Declaration 
of  Independence,"  American  Magazine,  February,  1910. 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II :    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION    169 

kept  her  in  bondage.  She  left,  but  was  pursued  and  found. 
Rather  than  have  her  go  back,  a  friend  paid  for  her  services 
for  the  rest  of  the  year.  Then  came  an  evening  when,  search- 
ing for  one  of  her  children  who  had  been  stolen  and  sold,  she 
found  herself  a  homeless  wanderer.  A  Quaker  family  gave 
her  lodging  for  the  night.  Subsequently  she  went  to  New 
York  City,  joined  a  Methodist  church,  and  worked  hard  to 
improve  her  condition.  Later,  having  decided  to  leave  New 
York  for  a  lecture  tour  through  the  East,  she  made  a  small 
bundle  of  her  belongings  and  informed  a  friend  that  her  name 
was  no  longer  Isabella  but  Sojourner.  She  went  on  her  way, 
speaking  to  people  wherever  she  found  them  assembled  and 
being  entertained  in  many  aristocratic  homes.  She  was  entirely 
untaught  in  the  schools,  but  was  witty,  original,  and  always 
suggestive.  By  her  tact  and  her  gift  of  song  she  kept  down 
ridicule,  and  by  her  fervor  and  faith  she  won  many  friends 
for  the  anti-slavery  cause.  As  to  her  name  she  said :  "And 
the  Lord  gave  me  Sojourner  because  I  was  to  travel  up  an' 
down  the  land  showin'  the  people  their  sins  an'  bein'  a  sign 
unto  them.  Afterwards  I  told  the  Lord  I  wanted  another 
name,  'cause  everybody  else  had  two  names,  an'  the  Lord  gave 
me  Truth,  because  I  was  to  declare  the  truth  to  the  people." 

On  the  second  day  of  the  convention  in  Akron,  in  a  corner, 
crouched  against  the  wall,  sat  this  woman  of  care,  her  elbows 
resting  on  her  knees,  and  her  chin  resting  upon  her  broad, 
hard  palms.*  In  the  intermission  she  was  employed  in  selling 
'The  Life  of  Sojourner  Truth."  From  time  to  time  came  to 
the  presiding  officer  the  request,  "Don't  let  her  speak;  it  will 
ruin  us.  Every  newspaper  in  the  land  will  have  our  cause 
mixed  with  abolition  and  niggers,  and  we  shall  be  utterly  de- 
nounced." Gradually,  however,  the  meeting  waxed  warm. 
Baptist,  Methodist,  Episcopalian,  Presbyterian,  and  Universal- 
ist  preachers  had  come  to  hear  and  discuss  the  resolutions  pre- 
sented. One  argued  the  superiority  of  the  male  intellect,  an- 
other the  sin  of  Eve,  and  the  women,  most  of  whom  did  not 
"speak  in  meeting,"  were  becoming  filled  with  dismay.    Then 

*  Reminiscences  of  the  president,  Mrs.  Frances  D.  Gage,  cited  by 
Tarbell. 


170    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

slowly  from  her  seat  in  the  corner  rose  Sojourner  Truth,  who 
till  now  had  scarcely  lifted  her  head.  Slowly  and  solemnly 
to  the  front  she  moved,  laid  her  old  bonnet  at  her  feet,  and 
turned  her  great,  speaking  eyes  upon  the  chair.  Mrs.  Gage, 
quite  equal  to  the  occasion,  stepped  forward  and  announced 
"Sojourner  Truth,"  and  begged  the  audience  to  be  silent  a 
few  minutes.  "The  tumult  subsided  at  once,  and  every  eye 
was  fixed  on  this  almost  Amazon  form,  which  stood  nearly 
six  feet  high,  head  erect,  and  eye  piercing  the  upper  air,  like 
one  in  a  dream."  At  her  first  word  there  was  a  profound 
hush.  She  spoke  in  deep  tones,  which,  though  not  loud, 
reached  every  ear  in  the  house,  and  even  the  throng  at  the 
doors  and  windows.  To  one  man  who  had  ridiculed  the 
general  helplessness  of  woman,  her  needing  to  be  assisted 
into  carriages  and  to  be  given  the  best  place  everywhere,  she 
said,  "Nobody  eber  helped  me  into  carriages,  or  ober  mud 
puddles,  or  gibs  me  any  best  place";  and  raising  herself  to 
her  full  height,  with  a  voice  pitched  like  rolling  thunder,  she 
asked,  "And  a'n't  I  a  woman?  Look  at  me.  Look  at  my  arm." 
And  she  bared  her  right  arm  to  the  shoulder,  showing  her 
tremendous  muscular  power.  "I  have  plowed,  and  planted,  and 
gathered  into  barns,  and  no  man  could  head  me — and  a'n't  I 
a  woman?  I  could  work  as  much  and  eat  as  much  as  a  man, 
when  I  could  get  it,  and  bear  de  lash  as  well — and  a'n't  I  a 
woman?  I  have  borne  five  chilern  and  seen  'em  mos'  all  sold 
off  into  slavery,  and  when  I  cried  out  with  a  mother's  grief, 
none  but  Jesus  heard — and  a'n't  I  a  woman?  .  .  .  Dey  talks 
'bout  dis  ting  in  de  head — what  dis  dey  call  it?"  "Intellect," 
said  some  one  near.  "Dat's  it,  honey.  What's  dat  got  to  do 
with  women's  rights  or  niggers'  rights?  If  my  cup  won't  hold 
but  a  pint  and  yourn  holds  a  quart,  wouldn't  ye  be  mean  not 
to  let  me  have  my  little  half-measure  full?"  And  she  pointed 
her  significant  finger  and  sent  a  keen  glance  at  the  minister 
who  had  made  the  argument.  The  cheering  was  long  and 
loud.  "Den  dat  little  man  in  black  dar,  he  say  women  can't 
have  as  much  rights  as  man,  'cause  Christ  wa'n't  a  woman. 
But  whar  did  Christ  come  from?"  Rolling  thunder  could  not 
have  stilled  that  crowd  as  did  those  deep,  wonderful  tones  as 
the  woman  stood  there  with  her  outstretched  arms  and  her 


NEGRO  REPLY,  II :    ORGANIZATION,  AGITATION    171 

eyes  of  fire.  Raising  her  voice  she  repeated,  "Whar  did  Christ 
come  from?  From  God  and  a  woman.  Man  had  nothing  to 
do  with  Him."  Turning  to  another  objector,  she  took  up  the 
defense  of  Eve.  She  was  pointed  and  witty,  solemn  and  seri- 
ous at  will,  and  at  almost  every  sentence  awoke  deafening 
applause;  and  she  ended  by  asserting,  "If  de  fust  woman  God 
made  was  strong  enough  to  turn  the  world  upside  down,  all 
alone,  dese  togedder," — and  she  glanced  over  the  audience — 
"ought  to  be  able  to  turn  it  back  and  get  it  right  side  up  again, 
and  now  dey  is  askin'  to  do  it,  de  men  better  let  'em." 

"Amid  roars  of  applause,"  wrote  Mrs.  Gage,  "she  returned 
to  her  corner,  leaving  more  than  one  of  us  with  streaming 
eyes  and  hearts  beating  with  gratitude."  Thus,  as  so  frequently 
happened,  Sojourner  Truth  turned  a  difficult  situation  into 
splendid  victory.  She  not  only  made  an  eloquent  plea  for 
the  slave,  but  placing  herself  upon  the  broadest  principles  of 
humanity,  she  saved  the  day  for  woman  suffrage  as  well. 


CHAPTER  IX 

LIBERIA 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  traced  the  early  development 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  whose  efforts  culmin- 
ated in  the  founding  of  the  colony  of  Liberia.  The  recent 
world  war,  with  Africa  as  its  prize,  fixed  attention  anew 
upon  the  little  republic.  This  comparatively  small  tract  of 
land,  just  slightly  more  than  one-three  hundredth  part  of  the 
surface  of  Africa,  is  now  of  interest  and  strategic  importance 
not  only  because  (if  we  except  Abyssinia,  which  claims  slightly 
different  race  origin,  and  Hayti,  which  is  now  really  under 
the  government  of  the  United  States)  it  represents  the  one 
distinctively  Negro  government  in  the  world,  but  also  because 
it  is  the  only  tract  of  land  on  the  great  West  Coast  of  the 
continent  that  has  survived,  even  through  the  war,  the  aggres- 
sion of  great  European  powers.  It  is  just  at  the  bend  of  the 
shoulder  of  Africa,  and  its  history  is  as  romantic  as  its  situa- 
tion is  unique. 

Liberia  has  frequently  been  referred  to  as  an  outstanding 
example  of  the  incapacity  of  the  Negro  for  self-government. 
Such  a  judgment  is  not  necessarily  correct.  It  is  indeed  an 
open  question  if,  in  view  of  the  nature  of  its  beginning,  the 
history  of  the  country  proves  anything  one  way  or  the  other 
with  reference  to  the  capacity  of  the  race.  The  early  settlers 
were  frequently  only  recently  out  of  bondage,  but  upon  them 
were  thrust  all  the  problems  of  maintenance  and  government, 
and  they  brought  with  them,  moreover,  the  false  ideas  of  life 
and  work  that  obtained  in  the  Old  South.  Sometimes  they 
suffered  from  neglect,  sometimes  from  excessive  solicitude; 
never  were  they  really  left  alone.  In  spite  of  all,  however, 
more  than  a  score  of  native  tribes  have  been  subdued  by  only 

172 


LIBERIA  m 

a  few  thousand  civilized  men,  the  republic  has  preserved  its 
integrity,  and  there  has  been  handed  down  through  the  years 
a  tradition  of  constitutional  government. 

I.     The  Place  and  the  People 

The  resources  of  Liberia  are  as  yet  imperfectly  known. 
There  is  no  question,  however,  about  the  fertility  of  the  in- 
terior, or  of  its  capacity  when  properly  developed.  There  are 
no  rivers  of  the  first  rank,  but  the  longest  streams  are  about 
three  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  at  convenient  distances  apart 
flow  down  to  a  coastline  somewhat  more  than  three  hundred 
miles  long.  Here  in  a  tract  of  land  only  slightly  larger  than 
our  own  state  of  Ohio  are  a  civilized  population  between  30,000 
and  100,000  in  number,  and  a  native  population  estimated  at 
2,000,000.  Of  the  civilized  population  the  smaller  figure, 
30,000,  is  the  more  nearly  correct  if  we  consider  only  those 
persons  who  are  fully  civilized,  and  this  number  would  be 
about  evenly  divided  between  Americo-Liberians  and  natives. 
Especially  in  the  towns  along  the  coast,  however,  there  are 
many  people  who  have  received  only  some  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  most  of  the  households  in  the  larger  towns  have  sev- 
eral native  children  living  in  them.  If  all  such  elements  are 
considered,  the  total  might  approach  100,000.  The  natives  in 
their  different  tribes  fall  into  three  or  four  large  divisions. 
In  general  they  follow  their  native  customs,  and  the  foremost 
tribes  exhibit  remarkable  intelligence  and  skill  in  industry. 
Outstanding  are  the  dignified  Mandingo,  with  a  Mohamme- 
dan tradition,  and  the  Vai,  distinguished  for  skill  in  the  arts 
and  with  a  culture  similar  to  that  of  the  Mandingo.  Also  eas- 
ily recognized  are  the  Kpwessi,  skillful  in  weaving  and  iron- 
work; the  Kru,  intelligent,  sea-faring,  and  eager  for  learning; 
the  Grebo,  ambitious  and  aggressive,  and  in  language  connec- 
tion close  to  the  Kru;  the  Bassa,  with  characteristics  some- 
what similar  to  those  of  the  Kru,  but  in  general  not  quite  so 
ambitious;  the  Buzi,  wild  and  highly  tattooed;  and  the  can- 
nibalistic Mano.  By  reason  of  numbers  if  nothing  else,  Libe- 
ria's chief  asset  for  the  future  consists  in  her  native  popula- 
tion. 


174    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

2.     History 

(a)     Colonization  and  Settlement 

In  pursuance  of  its  plans  for  the  founding  of  a  permanent 
colony  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  the  American  Colonization  So- 
ciety in  November,  1817,  sent  out  two  men,  Samuel  J.  Mills 
and  Ebenezer  Burgess,  who  were  authorized  to  find  a  suitable 
place  for  a  settlement.  Going  by  way  of  England,  these  men 
were  cordially  received  by  the  officers  of  the  African  Institu- 
tion and  given  letters  to  responsible  persons  in  Sierra  Leone. 
Arriving  at  the  latter  place  in  March,  181 8,  they  met  John 
Kizell,  a  native  and  a  man  of  influence,  who  had  received  some 
training  in  America  and  had  returned  to  his  people,  built  a 
house  of  worship,  and  become  a  preacher.  Kizell  undertook 
to  accompany  them  on  their  journey  down  the  coast  and  led 
the  way  to  Sherbro  Island,  a  place  long  in  disputed  territory 
but  since  included  within  the  limits  of  Sierra  Leone.  Here  the 
agents  were  hospitably  received;  they  fixed  upon  the  island  as 
a  permanent  site,  and  in  May  turned  their  faces  homeward. 
Mills  died  on  the  voyage  in  June  and  was  buried  at  sea;  but 
Burgess  made  a  favorable  report,  though  the  island  was  after- 
wards to  prove  by  no  means  healthy.  The  Society  was  im- 
pressed, but  efforts  might  have  languished  at  this  important 
stage  if  Monroe,  now  President,  had  not  found  it  possible 
to  bring  the  resources  of  the  United  States  Government  to 
assist  in  the  project.  Smuggling,  with  the  accompanying  evil 
of  the  sale  of  "recaptured  Africans/'  had  by  18 18  become  a 
national  disgrace,  and  on  March  3,  18 19,  a  bill  designed  to  do 
away  with  the  practice  became  a  law.  This  said  in  part :  "The 
President  of  the  United  States  is  hereby  authorized  to  make 
such  regulations  and  arrangements  as  he  may  deem  expedient 
for  the  safe-keeping,  support,  and  removal  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  United  States,  of  all  such  Negroes,  mulattoes,  or  per- 
sons of  color  as  may  be  so  delivered  and  brought  within  their 
jurisdiction ;  and  to  appoint  a  proper  person  or  persons  resid- 
ing upon  the  coast  of  Africa  as  agent  or  agents  for  receiving 
the  Negroes,  mulattoes,  or  persons  of  color,  delivered  from  on 
board  vessels  seized  in  the  prosecution  of  the  slave-trade  by 


LIBERIA  175 

commanders  of  the  United  States  armed  vessels."  For  the 
carrying  out  of  the  purpose  of  this  act  $100,000  was  appro- 
priated, and  Monroe  was  disposed  to  construe  as  broadly  as 
necessary  the  powers  given  him  under  it.  In  his  message  of 
December  20,  he  informed  Congress  that  he  had  appointed 
Rev.  Samuel  Bacon,  of  the  American  Colonization  Society, 
with  John  Bankson  as  assistant,  to  charter  a  vessel  and  take 
the  first  group  of  emigrants  to  Africa,  the  understanding  be- 
ing that  he  was  to  go  to  the  place  fixed  upon  by  Mills  and 
Burgess.  Thus  the  National  Government  and  the  Coloniza- 
tion Society,  while  technically  separate,  began  to  work  in  prac- 
tical cooperation.  The  ship  Elisabeth  was  made  ready  for  the 
voyage;  the  Government  informed  the  Society  that  it  would 
"receive  on  board  such  free  blacks  recommended  by  the  Soci- 
ety as  might  be  required  for  the  purpose  of  the  agency" ; 
$33,000  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Bacon ;  Rev.  Samuel 
A.  Crozer  was  appointed  as  the  Society's  official  representa- 
tive; 88  emigrants  were  brought  together  (2>3  men  an^  18 
women,  the  rest  being  children)  ;  and  on  February  5,  1820, 
convoyed  by  the  war-sloop  Cyane,  the  expedition  set  forth. 

An  interesting  record  of  the  voyage — important  for  the 
sidelights  it  gives — was  left  by  Daniel  Coker,  the  respected 
minister  of  a  large  Methodist  congregation  in  Baltimore  who 
was  persuaded  to  accompany  the  expedition  for  the  sake  of 
the  moral  influence  that  he  might  be  able  to  exert.*  There 
was  much  bad  weather  at  the  start,  and  it  was  the  icy  sea 
that  on  February  4  made  it  impossible  to  gtt  under  way  until 
the  next  day.  On  board,  moreover,  there  was  much  distrust 
of  the  agents  in  charge,  with  much  questioning  of  their  mo- 
tives; nor  were  matters  made  better  by  a  fight  between  one 
of  the  emigrants  and  the  captain  of  the  vessel.  It  was  a  rest- 
less company,  uncertain  as  to  the  future,  and  dissatisfied  and 
peevish  from  day  to  day.  Kizell  afterwards  remarked  that 
"some  would  not  be  governed  by  white  men,  and  some  would 
not  be  governed  by  black  men,  and  some  would  not  be  gov- 
erned by  mulattoes;  but  the  truth  was  they  did  not  want  to 

*  "Journal  of  Daniel  Coker,  a  descendant  of  Africa,  from  the  time 
of  leaving  New  York,  in  the  ship  Elizabeth,  Capt.  Sebor,  on  a  voyage  for 
Sherbro,  in  Africa.    Baltimore,  1820." 


176    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

be  governed  by  anybody."  On  March  3,  however,  the  ship 
sighted  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  and  six  days  afterwards  was 
anchored  at  Sierra  Leone;  and  Coker  rejoiced  that  at  last 
he  had  seen  Africa.  Kizell,  however,  whom  the  agents  had 
counted  on  seeing,  was  found  to  be  away  at  Sherbro ;  accord- 
ingly, six  days  after  their  arrival  *  they  too  were  making 
efforts  to  go  on  to  Sherbro,  for  they  were  allowed  at  anchor 
only  fifteen  days  and  time  was  passing  rapidly.  Meanwhile 
Bankson  went  to  find  Kizell.  Captain  Sebor  was  at  first  de- 
cidedly unwilling  to  go  further;  but  his  reluctance  was  at 
length  overcome;  Bacon  purchased  for  $3,000  a  British 
schooner  that  had  formerly  been  engaged  in  the  slave-trade; 
and  on  March  17  both  ship  and  schooner  got  under  way  for 
Sherbro.  The  next  day  they  met  Bankson,  who  informed 
them  that  he  had  seen  Kizell.  This  man,  although  he  had  not 
heard  from  America  since  the  departure  of  Mills  and  Burgess, 
had  already  erected  some  temporary  houses  against  the  rainy 
season.  He  permitted  the  newcomers  to  stay  in  his  little  town 
until  land  could  be  obtained;  sent  them  twelve  fowls  and  a 
bushel  of  rice;  but  he  also,  with  both  dignity  and  pathos, 
warned  Bankson  that  if  he  and  his  companions  came  with 
Christ  in  their  hearts,  it  was  well  that  they  had  come ;  if  not, 
it  would  have  been  better  if  they  had  stayed  in  America. 

Now  followed  much  fruitless  bargaining  with  the  native 
chiefs,  in  all  of  which  Coker  regretted  that  the  slave-traders 
had  so  ruined  the  people  that  it  seemed  impossible  to  make 
any  progress  in  a  "palaver"  without  the  offering  of  rum. 
Meanwhile  a  report  was  circulated  through  the  country  that  a 
number  of  Americans  had  come  and  turned  Kizell  out  of  his 
own  town  and  put  some  of  his  people  in  the  hold  of  their  ship. 
Disaster  followed  disaster.  The  marsh,  the  bad  water,  and 
the  malaria  played  havoc  with  the  colonists,  and  all  three  of 
the  responsible  agents  died.  The  few  persons  who  remained 
alive  made  their  way  back  to  Sierra  Leone. 

Thus  the  first  expedition  failed.  One  year  later,  in  March, 
1 82 1,  a  new  company  of  twenty-one  emigrants,  in  charge  of 
J.  B.  Winn  and  Ephraim  Bacon,  arrived  at  Freetown  in  the 

*  March  15.  The  narrative,  page  26,  says  February  15,  but  this  is 
obviously  a  typographical  error. 


LIBERIA  177 

brig  Nautilus.  It  had  been  the  understanding  that  in  return 
for  their  passage  the  members  of  the  first  expedition  would 
clear  the  way  for  others;  but  when  the  agents  of  the  new 
company  saw  the  plight  of  those  who  remained  alive,  they 
brought  all  of  the  colonists  together  at  Fourah  Bay,  and  Bacon 
went  farther  down  the  coast  to  seek  a  more  favorable  site. 
A  few  persons  who  did  not  wish  to  go  to  Fourah  Bay  re- 
mained in  Sierra  Leone  and  became  British  subjects.  Bacon 
found  a  promising  tract  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
down  the  coast  at  Cape  Montserado;  but  the  natives  were  not 
especially  eager  to  sell,  as  they  did  not  wish  to  break  up  the 
slave  traffic.  Meanwhile  Winn  and  several  more  of  the  colon- 
ists died;  and  Bacon  now  returned  to  the  United  States. 
The  second  expedition  had  thus  proved  to  be  little  more  suc- 
cessful than  the  first;  but  the  future  site  of  Monrovia  had 
at  least  been  suggested. 

In  November  came  Dr.  Eli  Ay  res  as  agent  of  the  Society, 
and  in  December  Captain  Robert  F.  Stockton  of  the  Alligator 
with  instructions  to  cooperate.  These  two  men  explored  the 
coast  and  on  December  1 1  arrived  at  Mesurado  Bay.  Through 
the  jungle  they  made  their  way  to  a  village  and  engaged  in 
a  palaver  with  King  Peter  and  five  of  his  associates.  The 
negotiations  were  conducted  in  the  presence  of  an  excited 
crowd  and  with  imminent  danger ;  but  Stockton  had  great  tact 
and  at  length,  for  the  equivalent  of  $300,  he  and  Ay  res  pur- 
chased the  mouth  of  the  Mesurado  River,  Cape  Montserado, 
and  the  land  for  some  distance  in  the  interior.  There  was  also 
an  understanding  (for  half  a  dozen  gallons  of  rum  and  some 
trade-cloth  and  tobacco)  with  King  George,  who  "resided  on 
the  Cape  and  claimed  a  sort  of  jurisdiction  over  the  northern 
district  of  the  peninsula  of  Montserado,  by  virtue  of  which  the 
settlers  were  permitted  to  pass  across  the  river  and  commence 
the  laborious  task  of  clearing  away  the  heavy  forest  which 
covered  the  site  of  their  intended  town."  *  Then  the  agent 
returned  to  effect  the  removal  of  the  colonists  from  Fourah 
Bay,  leaving  a  very  small  company  as  a  sort  of  guard  on  Per- 
severance (or  Providence)   Island  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

*Ashmun:  History  of  the  American  Colony  in  Liberia,  from  1821  to 
1823,  8. 


178     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Some  of  the  colonists  refused  to  leave,  remained,  and  thus 
became  British  subjects.  For  those  who  had  remained  on  the 
island  there  was  trouble  at  once.  A  small  vessel,  the  prize  of 
an  English  cruiser,  bound  to  Sierra  Leone  with  thirty  liberated 
Africans,  put  into  the  roads  for  water,  and  had  the  misfortune 
to  part  her  cable  and  come  ashore.  "The  natives  claim  to  a  pre- 
scriptive right,  which  interest  never  fails  to  enforce  to  its  full- 
est extent,  to  seize  and  appropriate  the  wrecks  and  cargoes  of 
vessels  stranded,  under  whatever  circumstances,  on  their 
coast."  *  The  vessel  in  question  drifted  to  the  mainland  one 
mile  from  the  cape,  a  small  distance  below  George's  town,  and 
the  natives  proceeded  to  act  in  accordance  with  tradition.  They 
were  fired  on  by  the  prize  master  and  forced  to  desist,  and  the 
captain  appealed  to  the  few  colonists  on  the  island  for  assist- 
ance. They  brought  into  play  a  brass  field  piece,  and  two  of 
the  natives  were  killed  and  several  more  wounded.  The  Eng- 
lish officer,  his  crew,  and  the  captured  Africans  escaped,  though 
the  small  vessel  was  lost;  but  the  next  day  the  Deys  (the 
natives),  feeling  outraged,  made  another  attack,  in  the  course 
of  which  some  of  them  and  one  of  the  colonists  were  killed. 
In  the  course  of  the  operations  moreover,  through  the  care- 
lessness of  some  of  the  settlers  themselves,  fire  was  communi- 
cated to  the  storehouse  and  $3000  worth  of  property  destroyed, 
though  the  powder  and  some  of  the  provisions  were  saved. 
Thus  at  the  very  beginning,  by  accident  though  it  happened, 
the  shadow  of  England  fell  across  the  young  colony,  involving 
it  in  difficulties  with  the  natives.  When  then  Ayres  returned 
with  the  main  crowd  of  settlers  on  January  7,  1822 — which 
arrival  was  the  first  real  landing  of  settlers  on  what  is  now 
Liberian  soil — he  found  that  the  Deys  wished  to  annul  the 
agreement  previously  made  and  to  give  back  the  articles  paid. 
He  himself  was  seized  in  the  course  of  a  palaver,  and  he  was 
able  to  arrive  at  no  better  understanding  than  that  the  colonists 
might  remain  only  until  they  could  make  a  new  purchase  else- 
where. Now  appeared  on  the  scene  Boatswain,  a  prominent 
chief  from  the  interior  who  sometimes  exercised  jurisdiction 
over  the  coast  tribes  and  who,  hearing  that  there  was  trouble  in 

*Ashmun,  9. 


LIBERIA  179 

the  bay,  had  come  hither,  bringing  with  him  a  sufficient  fol- 
lowing to  enforce  his  decrees.  Through  this  man  shone  some- 
thing of  the  high  moral  principle  so  often  to  be  observed  in 
responsible  African  chiefs,  and  to  him  Ayres  appealed.  Hear- 
ing the  story  he  decided  in  favor  of  the  colonists,  saying  to 
Peter,  "Having  sold  your  country  and  accepted  payment,  you 
must  take  the  consequences.  Let  the  Americans  have  their 
land  immediately."  To  the  agent  he  said,  "I  promise  you  pro- 
tection. If  these  people  give  you  further  disturbance,  send 
for  me ;  and  I  swear,  if  they  oblige  me  to  come  again  to  quiet 
them,  I  will  do  it  to  purpose,  by  taking  their  heads  from  their 
shoulders,  as  I  did  old  king  George's  on  my  last  visit  to  the 
coast  to  settle  disputes."  Thus  on  the  word  of  a  native  chief 
was  the  foundation  of  Liberia  assured. 

By  the  end  of  April  all  of  the  colonists  who  were  willing 
to  move  had  been  brought  from  Sierra  Leone  to  their  new 
home.  It  was  now  decided  to  remove  from  the  low  and  un- 
healthy island  to  the  higher  land  of  Cape  Montserado  only  a 
few  hundred  feet  away;  on  April  28  there  was  a  ceremony 
of  possession  and  the  American  flag  was  raised.  The  advan- 
tages of  the  new  position  were  obvious,  to  the  natives  as  well 
as  the  colonists,  and  the  removal  was  attended  with  great  ex- 
citement. By  July  the  island  was  completely  abandoned.  Mean- 
while, however,  things  had  not  been  going  well.  The  Deys 
had  been  rendered  very  hostile,  and  from  them  there  was 
constant  danger  of  attack.  The  rainy  season  moreover  had 
set  in,  shelter  was  inadequate,  supplies  were  low,  and  the  fever 
continually  claimed  its  victims.  Ayres  at  length  became  dis- 
couraged. He  proposed  that  the  enterprise  be  abandoned  and 
that  the  settlers  return  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  on  June  4  he  did 
actually  leave  with  a  few  of  them.  It  was  at  this  juncture 
that  Elijah  Johnson,  one  of  the  most  heroic  of  the  colonists, 
stepped  forth  to  fame. 

The  early  life  of  the  man  is  a  blank.  In  1789  he  was  taken 
to  New  Jersey.  He  received  some  instruction  and  studied 
for  the  Methodist  ministry,  took  part  in  the  War  of  181 2,  and 
eagerly  embraced  the  opportunity  to  be  among  the  first  to 
come  to  the  new  colony.  To  the  suggestion  that  the  enterprise 
be  abandoned  he  replied,  'Two  years  long  have  I  sought  a 


180     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

home;  here  I  have  found  it;  here  I  remain."  To  him  the  great 
heart  of  the  colonists  responded.  Among  the  natives  he  was 
known  and  respected  as  a  valiant  fighter.  He  lived  until  March 
23,  1849. 

Closely  associated  with  Johnson,  his  colleague  in  many  an 
effort  and  the  pioneer  in  mission  work,  was  the  Baptist  min- 
ister, Lott  Cary,  from  Richmond,  Va.,  who  also  had  become 
one  of  the  first  permanent  settlers.*  He  was  a  man  of  most 
unusual  versatility  and  force  of  character.  He  died  November 
8,  1828,  as  the  result  of  a  powder  explosion  that  occurred 
while  he  was  acting  in  defense  of  the  colony  against  the  Deys. 

July  (1822)  was  a  hard  month  for  the  settlers.  Not  only 
were  their  supplies  almost  exhausted,  but  they  were  on  a  rocky 
cape  and  the  natives  would  not  permit  any  food  to  be  brought 
to  them.  On  August  8,  however,  arrived  Jehudi  Ashmun,  a 
young  man  from  Vermont  who  had  worked  as  a  teacher  and 
as  the  editor  of  a  religious  publication  for  some  years  before 
coming  on  this  mission.  He  brought  with  him  a  company 
of  liberated  Africans  and  emigrants  to  the  number  of  fifty- 
five,  and  as  he  did  not  intend  to  remain  permanently  he  had 
yielded  to  the  entreaty  of  his  wife  and  permitted  her  to  ac- 
company him  on  the  voyage.  He  held  no  formal  commission 
from  the  American  Colonization  Society,  but  seeing  the  situa- 
tion he  felt  that  it  was  his  duty  to  do  what  he  could  to  relieve 
the  distress;  and  he  faced  difficulties  from  the  very  first.  On 
the  day  after  his  arrival  his  own  brig,  the  Strong,  was  in  dan- 
ger of  being  lost;  the  vessel  parted  its  cable,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  broke  it  again  and  drifted  until  it  was  land- 
locked between  Cape  Montserado  and  Cape  Mount.  A  small 
anchor  was  found,  however,  and  the  brig  was  again  moored, 
but  five  miles  from  the  settlement.  The  rainy  season  was  now 
on  in  full  force;  there  was  no  proper  place  for  the  storing  of 
provisions;  and  even  with  the  newcomers  it  soon  developed 
that  there  were  in  the  colony  only  thirty-five  men  capable  of 
bearing  arms,  so  great  had  been  the  number  of  deaths  from 
the  fever.  Sometimes  almost  all  of  these  were  sick;  on  Sep- 
tember 10  only  two  were  in  condition  for  any  kind  of  service. 

*  See  Chapter  III,  Section  5. 


LIBERIA  181 

Ashmun  tried  to  make  terms  with  the  native  chiefs,  but  their 
malignity  was  only  partially  concealed.  His  wife  languished 
before  his  eyes  and  died  September  15,  just  five  weeks  after 
her  arrival.  He  himself  was  incapacitated  for  several  months, 
nor  at  the  height  of  his  illness  was  he  made  better  by  the  min- 
istrations of  a  French  charlatan.  He  never  really  recovered 
from  the  great  inroads  made  upon  his  strength  at  this  time. 

As  a  protection  from  sudden  attack  a  clearing  around  the 
settlement  was  made.  Defenses  had  to  be  erected  without 
tools,  and  so  great  was  the  anxiety  that  throughout  the  months 
of  September  and  October  a  nightly  watch  of  twenty  men 
was  kept.  On  Sunday,  November  10,  the  report  was  circu- 
lated that  the  Deys  were  crossing  the  Mesurado  River,  and  at 
night  it  became  known  that  seven  or  eight  hundred  were  on 
the  peninsula  only  half  a  mile  to  the  west.  The  attack  came 
at  early  dawn  on  the  nth  and  the  colonists  might  have  been 
annihilated  if  they  had  not  brought  a  field-piece  into  play. 
When  this  was  turned  against  the  natives  advancing  in  com- 
pact array,  it  literally  tore  through  masses  of  living  flesh 
until  scores  of  men  were  killed.  Even  so  the  Deys  might  have 
won  the  engagement  if  they  had  not  stopped  too  soon  to 
gather  plunder.  As  it  was,  they  were  forced  to  retreat.  Of 
the  settlers  three  men  and  one  woman  were  killed,  two  men 
and  two  women  injured,  and  several  children  taken  captive, 
though  these  were  afterwards  returned.  At  this  time  the  col- 
onists suffered  greatly  from  the  lack  of  any  supplies  for  the 
treatment  of  wounds.  Only  medicines  for  the  fever  were  on 
hand,  and  in  the  hot  climate  those  whose  flesh  had  been  torn 
by  bullets  suffered  terribly.  In  this  first  encounter,  as  often 
in  these  early  years,  the  real  burden  of  conflict  fell  upon  Cary 
and  Johnson.  After  the  battle  these  men  found  that  they  had 
on  hand  ammunition  sufficient  for  only  one  hour's  defense. 
All  were  placed  on  a  special  allowance  of  provisions  and  No- 
vember 23  was  observed  as  a  day  of  prayer.  A  passing  vessel 
furnished  additional  supplies  and  happily  delayed  for  some 
days  the  inevitable  attack.  This  came  from  two  sides  very 
early  in  the  morning  of  December  2.  There  was  a  desperate 
battle.  Three  bullets  passed  through  Ashmun's  clothes,  one 
of  the  gunners  was  killed,  and  repeated  attacks  were  resisted 


182     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

only  with  the  most  dogged  determination.  An  accident,  or, 
as  the  colonists  regarded  it,  a  miracle,  saved  them  from  de- 
struction. A  guard,  hearing  a  noise,  discharged  a  large  gun 
and  several  muskets.  The  schooner  Prince  Regent  was  pass- 
ing, with  Major  Laing,  Midshipman  Gordon,  and  eleven  spe- 
cially trained  men  on  board.  The  officers,  hearing  the  sound 
of  guns,  came  ashore  to  see  what  was  the  trouble.  Major 
Laing  offered  assistance  if  ground  was  given  for  the  erection 
of  a  British  flag,  and  generally  attempted  to  bring  about  an 
adjustment  of  difficulties  on  the  basis  of  submitting  these  to 
the  governor  of  Sierra  Leone.  To  these  propositions  Elijah 
Johnson  replied,  "We  want  no  flagstaff  put  up  here  that  it  will 
cost  more  to  get  down  than  it  will  to  whip  the  natives."  How- 
ever, Gordon  and  the  men  under  him  were  left  behind  for  the 
protection  of  the  colony  until  further  help  could  arrive.  Within 
one  month  he  and  seven  of  the  eleven  were  dead.  He  himself 
had  found  a  ready  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  settlers,  and  to 
him  and  his  men  Liberia  owes  much.  They  came  in  a  needy 
hour  and  gave  their  lives  for  the  cause  of  freedom. 

An  American  steamer  passing  in  December,  1822,  gave 
some  temporary  relief.  On  March  31,  1823,  the  Cyane,  with 
Capt.  R.  T.  Spence  in  charge,  arrived  from  America  with 
supplies.  As  many  members  of  his  crew  became  ill  after  only 
a  few  days,  Spence  soon  deemed  it  advisable  to  leave.  His 
chief  clerk,  however,  Richard  Seaton,  heroically  volunteered 
to  help  with  the  work,  remained  behind,  and  died  after  only 
three  months.  On  May  24  came  the  Oswego  with  sixty-one 
new  colonists  and  Dr.  Ayres,  who,  already  the  Society's  agent, 
now  returned  with  the  additional  authority  of  Government 
agent  and  surgeon.  He  made  a  survey  and  attempted  a  new 
allotment  of  land,  only  to  find  that  the  colony  was  soon  in 
ferment,  because  some  of  those  who  possessed  the  best  hold- 
ings or  who  had  already  made  the  beginnings  of  homes,  were 
now  required  to  give  these  up.  There  was  so  much  rebellion 
that  in  December  Ayres  again  deemed  it  advisable  to  leave. 
The  year  1823  was  in  fact  chiefly  noteworthy  for  the  mis- 
understandings that  arose  between  the  colonists  and  Ashmun. 
This  man  had  been  placed  in  a  most  embarrassing  situation 


LIBERIA  183 

by  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Ay  res.*  He  not  only  found  himself 
superseded  in  the  government,  but  had  the  additional  misfor- 
tune to  learn  that  his  drafts  had  been  dishonored  and  that  no 
provision  had  been  made  to  remunerate  him  for  his  past  serv- 
ices or  provide  for  his  present  needs.  Finding  his  services 
undervalued,  and  even  the  confidence  of  the  Society  withheld, 
he  was  naturally  indignant,  though  his  attachment  to  the  cause 
remained  steadfast.  Seeing  the  authorized  agent  leaving  the 
colony,  and  the  settlers  themselves  in  a  state  of  insubordina- 
tion, with  no  formal  authority  behind  him  he  yet  resolved  to 
forget  his  own  wrongs  and  to  do  what  he  could  to  save  from 
destruction  that  for  which  he  had  already  suffered  so  much. 
He  was  young  and  perhaps  not  always  as  tactful  as  he  might 
have  been.  On  the  other  hand,  the  colonists  had  not  yet  learned 
fully  to  appreciate  the  real  greatness  of  the  man  with  whom 
they  were  dealing.  As  for  the  Society  at  home,  not  even  so 
much  can  be  said.  The  real  reason  for  the  withholding  of 
confidence  from  Ashmun  was  that  many  of  the  members  ob- 
jected to  his  persistent  attacks  on  the  slave-trade. 

By  the  regulations  that  governed  the  colony  at  the  time, 
each  man  who  received  rations  was  required  to  contribute  to 
the  general  welfare  two  days  of  labor  a  week.  Early  in  De- 
cember twelve  men  cast  off  all  restraint,  and  on  the  13th  Ash- 
mun published  a  notice  in  which  he  said:  "There  are  in  the 
colony  more  than  a  dozen  healthy  persons  who  will  receive 
no  more  provisions  out  of  the  public  store  until  they  earn 
them."  On  the  19th,  in  accordance  with  this  notice,  the  pro- 
visions of  the  recalcitrants  were  stopped.  The  next  morning, 
however,  the  men  went  to  the  storehouse,  and  while  provisions 
were  being  issued,  each  seized  a  portion  and  went  to  his  home. 
Ashmun  now  issued  a  circular,  reminding  the  colonists  of  all 
of  their  struggles  together  and  generally  pointing  out  to  them 
how  such  a  breach  of  discipline  struck  at  the  very  heart  of 
the  settlement.  The  colonists  rallied  to  his  support  and  the 
twelve  men  returned  to  duty.  The  trouble,  however,  was  not 
yet  over.  On  March  19,  1824,  Ashmun  found  it  necessary  to 
order  a  cut  in  provisions.     He  had  previously  declared  to  the 

♦Stockwell,  73. 


1 84     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Board  that  in  his  opinion  the  evil  was  "incurable  by  any  of 
the  remedies  which  fall  within  the  existing  provisions";  and 
counter  remonstrances  had  been  sent  by  the  colonists,  who 
charged  him  with  oppression,  neglect  of  duty,  and  the  seizure 
of  public  property.  He  now,  seeing  that  his  latest  order  was 
especially  unpopular,  prepared  new  despatches,  on  March  22 
reviewed  the  whole  course  of  his  conduct  in  a  strong  and 
lengthy  address,  and  by  the  last  of  the  month  had  left  the 
colony. 

Meanwhile  the  Society,  having  learned  that  things  were 
not  going  well  with  the  colony,  had  appointed  its  secretary, 
Rev.  R.  R.  Gurley,  to  investigate  conditions.  Gurley  met 
Ashmun  at  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  and  urgently  requested 
that  he  return  to  Monrovia.*  This  Ashmun  was  not  unwill- 
ing to  do,  as  he  desired  the  fullest  possible  investigation  into 
his  conduct.  Gurley  was  in  Liberia  from  August  13  to  Au- 
gust 22,  1824,  only;  but  from  the  time  of  his  visit  conditions 
improved.  Ashmun  was  fully  vindicated  and  remained  for 
four  years  more  until  his  strength  was  all  but  spent.  There 
was  adopted  what  was  known  as  the  Gurley  Constitution. 
According  to  this  the  agent  in  charge  was  to  have  supreme 
charge  and  preside  at  all  public  meetings.  He  was  to  be  as- 
sisted, however,  by  eleven  officers  annually  chosen,  the  most 
important  of  whom  he  was  to  appoint  on  nomination  by  the 
colonists.  Among  these  were  a  vice-agent,  two  councilors, 
two  justices  of  the  peace,  and  two  constables.  There  was  to 
be  a  guard  of  twelve  privates,  two  corporals,  and  one  sergeant. 

For  a  long  time  it  was  the  custom  of  the  American  Coloni- 
zation Society  to  send  out  two  main  shipments  of  settlers  a 
year,  one  in  the  spring  and  one  in  the  fall.  On  February  13, 
1824,  arrived  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  emigrants,  mainly 
from  Petersburg,  Va.  These  people  were  unusually  intelligent 
and  industrious  and  received  a  hearty  welcome.  Within  a 
month  practically  all  of  them  were  sick  with  the  fever.     On 

*  This  name,  in  honor  of  President  Monroe,  had  recently  been  adopted 
by  the  Society  at  the  suggestion  of  Robert  Goodloe  Harper,  of  Mary- 
land, who  also  suggested  the  name  Liberia  for  the  country.  Harper 
himself  was  afterwards  honored  by  having  the  chief  town  in  Maryland 
in  Africa  named  after  him. 


LIBERIA  185 

this  occasion,  as  on  many  others,  Lott  Cary  served  as  physi- 
cian, and  so  successful  was  he  that  only  three  of  the  sufferers 
died.  Another  company  of  unusual  interest  was  that  which 
arrived  early  in  1826.  It  brought  along  a  printer,  a  press 
with  the  necessary  supplies,  and  books  sent  by  friends  in 
Boston.  Unfortunately  the  printer  was  soon  disabled  by  the 
fever. 

Sickness,  however,  and  wars  with  the  natives  were  not  the 
only  handicaps  that  engaged  the  attention  of  the  colony  in 
these  years.  "At  this  period  the  slave-trade  was  carried  on 
extensively  within  sight  of  Monrovia.  Fifteen  vessels  were 
engaged  in  it  at  the  same  time,  almost  under  the  guns  of  the 
settlement;  and  in  July  of  this  year  a  contract  was  existing 
for  eight  hundred  slaves  to  be  furnished,  in  the  short  space 
of  four  months,  within  eight  miles  of  the  cape.  Four  hun- 
dred of  these  were  to  be  purchased  for  two  American 
traders."  *  Ashmun  attacked  the  Spaniards  engaged  in  the 
traffic,  and  labored  generally  to  break  up  slave  factories.  On 
one  occasion  he  received  as  many  as  one  hundred  and  sixteen 
slaves  into  the  colony  as  freemen.  He  also  adopted  an  atti- 
tude of  justice  toward  the  native  Krus.  Of  special  impor- 
tance was  the  attack  on  Trade  Town,  a  stronghold  of  French 
and  Spanish  traders  about  one  hundred  miles  below  Monrovia. 
Here  there  were  not  less  than  three  large  factories.  On  the 
day  of  the  battle,  April  10,  there  were  three  hundred  and  fifty 
natives  on  shore  under  the  direction  of  the  traders,  but  the 
colonists  had  the  assistance  of  some  American  vessels,  and  a 
Liberian  officer,  Captain  Barbour,  was  of  outstanding  courage 
and  ability.  The  town  was  fired  after  eighty  slaves  had  been 
surrendered.  The  flames  reached  the  ammunition  of  the  enemy 
and  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  casks  of  gunpowder  exploded. 
By  July,  however,  the  traders  had  built  a  battery  at  Trade 
Town  and  were  prepared  to  give  more  trouble.  All  the  same 
a  severe  blow  had  been  dealt  to  their  work. 

In  his  report  rendered  at  the  close  of  1825  Ashmun  showed 
that  the  settlers  were  living  in  neatness  and  comfort;  two 
chapels  had  been  built,  and  the  militia  was  well  organized, 

*  Stockwell,  79. 


186     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

equipped,  and  disciplined.  The  need  of  some  place  for  the 
temporary  housing  of  immigrants  having  more  and  more 
impressed  itself  upon  the  colony,  before  the  end  of  1826  a 
"receptacle"  capable  of  holding  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons 
was  erected.  Ashmun  himself  served  on  until  1828,  by  which 
time  his  strength  was  completely  spent.  He  sailed  for  America 
early  in  the  summer  and  succeeded  in  reaching  New  Haven, 
only  to  die  after  a  few  weeks.  No  man  had  given  more  for 
the  founding  of  Liberia.  The  principal  street  in  Monrovia 
is  named  after  him. 

Aside  from  wars  with  the  natives,  the  most  noteworthy 
being  the  Dey-Gola  war  of  1832,  the  most  important  feature 
of  Liberian  history  in  the  decade  1828- 1838  was  the  develop- 
ment along  the  coast  of  other  settlements  than  Monrovia. 
These  were  largely  the  outgrowth  of  the  activity  of  local 
branch  organizations  of  the  American  Colonization  Society, 
and  they  were  originally  supposed  to  have  the  oversight  of 
the  central  organization  and  of  the  colony  of  Monrovia.  The 
circumstances  under  which  they  were  founded,  however,  gave 
them  something  of  a  feeling  of  independence  which  did  much 
to  influence  their  history.  Thus  arose,  about  seventy-five  miles 
farther  down  the  coast,  under  the  auspices  especially  of  the 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania  societies,  the  Grand  Bassa  set- 
tlements at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's  River,  the  town  Edina 
being  outstanding.  Nearly  a  hundred  miles  farther  south, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Sino  River,  another  colony  developed  as 
its  most  important  town  Greenville ;  and  as  most  of  the  settlers 
in  this  vicinity  came  from  Mississippi,  their  province  became 
known  as  Mississippi  in  Africa.  A  hundred  miles  farther, 
on  Cape  Palmas,  just  about  twenty  miles  from  the  Cavalla 
River  marking  the  boundary  of  the  French  possessions,  de- 
veloped the  town  of  Harper  in  what  became  known  as  Mary- 
land in  Africa.  This  colony  was  even  more  aloof  than  others 
from  the  parent  settlement  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  When  the  first  colonists  arrived  at  Monrovia  in 
1 83 1,  they  were  not  very  cordially  received,  there  being  trouble 
about  the  allotment  of  land.  They  waited  for  some  months 
for  reen  for  cements  and  then  sailed  down  the  coast  to  the  vi- 
cinity of  the  Cavalla  River,  where  they  secured  land  for  their 


LIBERIA  187 

future  home  and  where  their  distance  from  the  other  colonists 
from  America  made  it  all  the  more  easy  for  them  to  cultivate 
their  tradition  of  independence.*  These  four  ports  are  now 
popularly  known  as  Monrovia,  Grand  Bassa,  Sino,  and  Cape 
Palmas;  and  to  them  for  general  prominence  might  now  be 
added  Cape  Mount,  about  fifty  miles  from  Monrovia  higher 
up  the  coast  and  just  a  few  miles  from  the  Mano  River,  which 
now  marks  the  boundary  between  Sierra  Leone  and  Liberia. 
In  1838,  on  a  constitution  drawn  up  by  Professor  Greenleaf, 
of  Harvard  College,  was  organized  the  "Commonwealth  of 
Liberia,"  the  government  of  which  was  vested  in  a  Board  of 
Directors  composed  of  delegates  from  the  state  societies,  and 
which  included  all  the  settlements  except  Maryland.  This 
remote  colony,  whose  seaport  is  Cape  Palmas,  did  not 
join  with  the  others  until  1857,  ten  years  after  Liberia 
had  become  an  independent  republic.  When  a  special  company 
of  settlers  arrived  from  Baltimore  and  formally  occupied 
Cape  Palmas  (1834),  Dr.  James  Hall  was  governor  and  he 
served  in  this  capacity  until  1836,  when  failing  health  forced 
him  to  return  to  America.  He  was  succeeded  by  John  B. 
Russwurm,  a  young  Negro  who  had  come  to  Liberia  in  1829 
for  the  purpose  of  superintending  the  system  of  education. 
The  country,  however,  was  not  yet  ready  for  the  kind  of  work 
he  wanted  to  do,  and  in  course  of  time  he  went  into  politics. 
He  served  very  efficiently  as  Governor  of  Maryland  from 
1836  to  1 85 1,  especially  exerting  himself  to  standardize  the 
currency  and  to  stabilize  the  revenues.  Five  years  after  his 
death  Maryland  suffered  greatly  from  an  attack  by  the  Gre- 
boes,  twenty-six  colonists  being  killed.  An  appeal  to  Mon- 
rovia for  help  led  to  the  sending  of  a  company  of  men  and 
later  to  the  incorporation  of  the  colony  in  the  Republic. 

Of  the  events  of  the  period  special  interest  attaches  to  the 
murder  of  I.  F.  C.  Finley,  Governor  of  Mississippi  in  Africa, 
to  whose  father,  Rev.  Robert  Finley,  the  organization  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society  had  been  very  largely  due. 
In  September,  1838,  Governor  Finley  left  his  colony  to  go  to 
Monrovia  on  business,  and  making  a  landing  at  Bassa  Cove, 

*  McPherson  is  especially  valuable  for  his  study  of  the  Maryland 
colony. 


188     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

he  was  robbed  and  killed  by  the  Krus.  This  unfortunate  mur- 
der led  to  a  bitter  conflict  between  the  settlers  in  the  vicinity 
and  the  natives.  This  is  sometimes  known  as  the  Fish  War 
(from  being  waged  around  Fishpoint)  and  did  not  really 
cease  for  a  year. 

(b)     The  Commonwealth  of  Liberia 

The  first  governor  of  the  newly  formed  Commonwealth 
was  Thomas  H.  Buchanan,  a  man  of  singular  energy  who 
represented  the  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  societies  and 
who  had  come  in  1836  especially  to  take  charge  of  the  Grand 
Bassa  settlements.  Becoming  governor  in  1838,  he  found 
it  necessary  to  proceed  vigorously  against  the  slave  dealers 
at  Trade  Town.  He  was  also  victorious  in  1840  in  a  contest 
with  the  Gola  tribe  led  by  Chief  Gatumba.  The  Golas  had 
defeated  the  Dey  tribe  so  severely  that  a  mere  remnant  of 
the  latter  had  taken  refuge  with  the  colonists  at  Millsburg, 
a  station  a  few  miles  up  the  St.  Paul's  River.  Thus,  as  hap- 
pened more  than  once,  a  tribal  war  in  time  involved  the  very 
existence  of  the  new  American  colonies.  Governor  Buchanan's 
victory  greatly  increased  his  prestige  and  made  it  possible  for 
him  to  negotiate  more  and  more  favorable  treaties  with  the 
natives.  A  contest  of  different  sort  was  that  with  a  Metho- 
dist missionary,  John  Seyes,  who  held  that  all  goods  used 
by  missionaries,  including  those  sold  to  the  natives,  should  be 
admitted  free  of  duty.  The  governor  contended  that  such 
privilege  should  be  extended  only  to  goods  intended  for  the 
personal  use  of  missionaries;  and  the  Colonization  Society 
stood  behind  him  in  this  opinion.  As  early  as  1840  more- 
over some  shadow  of  future  events  was  cast  by  trouble  made 
by  English  traders  on  the  Mano  River,  the  Sierra  Leone  boun- 
dary. Buchanan  sent  an  agent  to  England  to  represent  him 
in  an  inquiry  into  the  matter;  but  in  the  midst  of  his  vigorous 
work  he  died  in  1841.  He  was  the  last  white  man  formally 
under  any  auspices  at  the  head  of  Liberian  affairs.  Happily 
his  period  of  service  had  given  opportunity  and  training  to 
an  efficient  helper,  upon  whom  now  the  burden  fell  and  of 


LIBERIA  189 

whom  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  he  is  the  foremost 
figure  in  Liberian  history. 

Joseph  Jenkin  Roberts  was  a  mulatto  born  in  Virginia  in 
1809.  At  the  age  of  twenty,  with  his  widowed  mother  and 
younger  brothers,  he  went  to  Liberia  and  engaged  in  trade. 
In  course  of  time  he  proved  to  be  a  man  of  unusual  tact  and 
graciousness  of  manner,  moving  with  ease  among  people  of 
widely  different  rank.  His  abilities  soon  demanded  recogni- 
tion, and  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  force  that  defeated  Ga- 
tumba.  As  governor  he  realized  the  need  of  cultivating  more 
far-reaching  diplomacy  than  the  Commonwealth  had  yet 
known.  He  had  the  cooperation  of  the  Maryland  governor, 
Russwurm,  in  such  a  matter  as  that  of  uniform  customs  duties ; 
and  he  visited  the  United  States,  where  he  made  a  very  good 
impression.  He  soon  understood  that  he  had  to  reckon  pri- 
marily with  the  English  and  the  French.  England  had  indeed 
assumed  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  the  slave-trade;  but  her 
traders  did  not  scruple  to  sell  rum  to  slave  dealers,  and  espe- 
cially were  they  interested  in  the  palm  oil  of  Liberia.  When 
the  Commonwealth  sought  to  impose  customs  duties,  England 
took  the  position  that  as  Liberia  was  not  an  independent  gov- 
ernment, she  had  no  right  to  do  so;  and  the  English  attitude 
had  some  show  of  strength  from  the  fact  that  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  an  outside  organization,  had  a  veto 
power  over  whatever  Liberia  might  do.  When  in  1845  the 
Liberian  Government  seized  the  Little  Ben,  an  English  trad- 
ing vessel  whose  captain  acted  in  defiance  of  the  revenue  laws, 
the  British  in  turn  seized  the  John  Seyes,  belonging  to  a  Li- 
berian named  Benson,  and  sold  the  vessel  for  £8000.  Liberia 
appealed  to  the  United  States ;  but  the  Oregon  boundary  ques- 
tion as  well  as  slavery  had  given  the  American  Government 
problems  enough  at  home;  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  Ed- 
ward Everett,  finally  replied  to  Lord  Aberdeen  (1845)  that 
America  was  not  "presuming  to  settle  differences  arising  be- 
tween Liberian  and  British  subjects,  the  Liberians  being  re- 
sponsible for  their  own  acts."  The  Colonization  Society, 
powerless  to  act  except  through  its  own  government, 
in  January,  1846,  resolved  that  "the  time  had  arrived 
when  it  was  expedient  for  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth 


iqo     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  Liberia  to  take  into  their  own  hands  the  whole  work  of 
self-government  including  the  management  of  all  their  for- 
eign relations."  Forced  to  act  for  herself  Liberia  called  a 
constitutional  convention  and  on  July  26,  1847,  issued  a  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  and  adopted  the  Constitution  of  the 
Liberian  Republic.  In  October,  Joseph  Jenkin  Roberts,  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Commonwealth,  was  elected  the  first  President 
of  the  Republic. 

It  may  well  be  questioned  if  by  1847  Liberia  had  developed 
sufficiently  internally  to  be  able  to  assume  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  an  independent  power.  There  were  at  the 
time  not  more  than  4,500  civilized  people  of  American  origin 
in  the  country ;  these  were  largely  illiterate  and  scattered  along 
a  coastline  more  than  three  hundred  miles  in  length.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  this  consummation  had 
been  attained  without  much  yearning  and  heart-beat  and  high 
spiritual  fervor.  There  was  something  pathetic  in  the  effort 
of  this  small  company,  most  of  whose  members  had  never 
seen  Africa  but  for  the  sake  of  their  race  had  made  their 
way  back  to  the  fatherland.  The  new  seal  of  the  Republic 
bore  the  motto :  The  Love  of  Liberty  Brought  Us  Here. 
The  flag,  modeled  on  that  of  the  United  States,  had  six  red 
and  five  white  stripes  for  the  eleven  signers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  in  the  upper  corner  next  to  the  staff  a 
lone  white  star  in  a  field  of  blue.  The  Declaration  itself  said 
in  part: 

We,  the  people  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia,  were  originally  inhab- 
itants of  the  United  States  of  North  America. 

In  some  parts  of  that  country  we  were  debarred  by  law  from  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  men;  in  other  parts  public  sentiment, 
more  powerful  than  law,  frowned  us  down. 

We  were  everywhere  shut  out  from  all  civil  office. 

We  were  excluded  from  all  participation  in  the  government. 

We  were  taxed  without  our  consent. 

We  were  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  resources  of  a  country 
which  gave  us  no  protection. 

We  were  made  a  separate  and  distinct  class,  and  against  us  every 
avenue  of  improvement  was  effectually  closed.  Strangers  from  all 
lands  of  a  color  different  from  ours  were  preferred  before  us. 


LIBERIA  191 

We  uttered  our  complaints,  but  they  were  unattended  to,  or  met 
only  by  alleging  the  peculiar  institution  of  the  country. 

All  hope  of  a  favorable  change  in  our  country  was  thus  wholly 
extinguished  in  our  bosom,  and  we  looked  with  anxiety  abroad  for 
some  asylum  from  the  deep  degradation. 

The  Western  coast  of  Africa  was  the  place  selected  by  American 
benevolence  and  philanthropy  for  our  future  home.  Removed  beyond 
those  influences  which  depressed  us  in  our  native  land,  it  was  hoped 
we  would  be  enabled  to  enjoy  those  rights  and  privileges,  and  exer- 
cise and  improve  those  faculties,  which  the  God  of  nature  had  given 
us  in  common  with  the  rest  of  mankind. 


(c)      The  Republic  of  Liberia 

With  the  adoption  of  its  constitution  the  Republic  of  Liberia 
formally  asked  to  be  considered  in  the  family  of  nations;  and 
since  1847  the  history  of  the  country  has  naturally  been  very 
largely  that  of  international  relations.  In  fact,  preoccupation 
with  the  questions  raised  by  powerful  neighbors  has  been  at 
least  one  strong  reason  for  the  comparatively  slow  internal 
development  of  the  country.  The  Republic  was  officially  rec- 
ognized by  England  in  1848,  by  France  in  1852,  but  on  ac- 
count of  slavery  not  by  the  United  States  until  1862.  Con- 
tinuously there  has  been  an  observance  of  the  forms  of  order, 
and  only  one  president  has  been  deposed.  For  a  long  time 
the  presidential  term  was  two  years  in  length;  but  by  an  act 
of  1907  it  was  lengthened  to  four  years.  From  time  to  time 
there  have  been  two  political  parties,  but  not  always  has  such 
a  division  been  emphasized. 

It  is  well  to  pause  and  note  exactly  what  was  the  task  set 
before  the  little  country.  A  company  of  American  Negroes 
suddenly  found  themselves  placed  on  an  unhealthy  and  unculti- 
vated coast  which  was  thenceforth  to  be  their  home.  If  we 
compare  them  with  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  we  find  that  as  the 
Pilgrims  had  to  subdue  the  Indians,  so  they  had  to  hold  their 
own  against  a  score  of  aggressive  tribes.  The  Pilgrims  had 
the  advantage  of  a  thousand  years  of  culture  and  experience 
in  government;  the  Negroes,  only  recently  out  of  bondage, 
had  been  deprived  of  any  opportunity  for  improvement  what- 
soever.    Not  only,  however,  did  they  have  to  contend  against 


192     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

native  tribes  and  labor  to  improve  their  own  shortcomings; 
on  every  hand  they  had  to  meet  the  designs  of  nations  sup- 
posedly more  enlightened  and  Christian.  On  the  coast  Span- 
ish traders  defied  international  law;  on  one  side  the  English, 
and  on  the  other  the  French,  from  the  beginning  showed  a 
tendency  toward  arrogance  and  encroachment.  To  crown  the 
difficulty,  the  American  Government,  under  whose  auspices  the 
colony  had  largely  been  founded,  became  more  and  more  half- 
hearted in  its  efforts  for  protection  and  at  length  abandoned  the 
enterprise  altogether.  It  did  not  cease,  however,  to  regard 
the  colony  as  the  dumping-ground  of  its  own  troubles,  and 
whenever  a  vessel  with  slaves  from  the  Congo  was  captured 
on  the  high  seas,  it  did  not  hesitate  to  take  these  people  to 
the  Liberian  coast  and  leave  them  there,  nearly  dead  though 
they  might  be  from  exposure  or  cramping.  It  is  well  for  one 
to  remember  such  facts  as  these  before  he  is  quick  to  belittle 
or  criticize.  To  the  credit  of  the  "Congo  men"  be  it  said  that 
from  the  first  they  labored  to  make  themselves  a  quiet  and 
industrious  element  in  the  body  politic. 

The  early  administrations  of  President  Roberts  (four 
terms,  1848-1855)  were  mainly  devoted  to  the  quelling  of 
the  native  tribes  that  continued  to  give  trouble  and  to  the 
cultivating  of  friendly  relations  with  foreign  powers.  Soon 
after  his  inauguration  Roberts  made  a  visit  to  England,  the 
power  from  which  there  was  most  to  fear;  and  on  this  occa- 
sion as  on  several  others  England  varied  her  arrogance  with 
a  rather  excessive  friendliness  toward  the  little  republic.  She 
presented  to  Roberts  the  Lark,  a  ship  with  four  guns,  and 
sent  the  President  home  on  a  war-vessel.  Some  years  after- 
yards,  when  the  Lark  was  out  of  repair,  England  sent  instead 
a  schooner,  the  Quail.  Roberts  made  a  second  visit  to  Eng- 
land in  1852  to  adjust  disputes  with  traders  on  the  western 
boundary.  He  also  visited  France,  and  Louis  Napoleon,  not 
to  be  outdone  by  England,  presented  to  him  a  vessel,  the 
Hirondelle,  and  also  guns  and  uniforms  for  his  soldiers.  In 
general  the  administrations  of  Roberts  (we  might  better  say 
his  first  series  of  administrations,  for  he  was  later  to  be  called 
again  to  office)  made  a  period  of  constructive  statesmanship 
and  solid  development,  and  not  a  little  of  the  respect  that  the 


LIBERIA  193 

young  republic  won  was  due  to  the  personal  influence  of  its 
first  president.  Roberts,  however,  happened  to  be  very  fair, 
and  generally  successful  though  his  administrations  were,  the 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  people  that  the  highest  office  in  the 
country  be  held  by  a  black  man  seems  to  have  been  a  deter- 
mining factor  in  the  choice  of  his  successor.  There  was  an 
interesting  campaign  toward  the  close  of  his  last  term.  "There 
were  about  this  time  two  political  parties  in  the  country — the 
old  Republicans  and  the  True  Liberians,'  a  party  which  had 
been  formed  in  opposition  to  Roberts's  foreign  policies.  But 
during  the  canvass  the  platform  of  this  new  party  lost  ground; 
the  result  was  in  favor  of  the  Republican  candidate."  * 

Stephen  Allen  Benson  (four  terms,  1 856-1 863)  was  forced 
to  meet  in  one  way  or  another  almost  all  of  the  difficulties  that 
have  since  played  a  part  in  the  life  of  the  Liberian  people. 
He  had  come  to  the  country  in  1822  at  the  age  of  six  and  had 
developed  into  a  practical  and  efficient  merchant.  To  his  high 
office  he  brought  the  same  principles  of  sobriety  and  good 
sense  that  had  characterized  him  in  business.  On  February 
28,  1857,  the  independent  colony  of  Maryland  formally  be- 
came a  part  of  the  republic.  This  action  followed  immediate- 
ly upon  the  struggle  with  the  Greboes  in  the  vicinity  of  Cape 
Palmas  in  which  assistance  was  rendered  by  the  Liberians 
under  Ex-President  Roberts.  In  1858  an  incident  that  threat- 
ened complications  with  France  but  that  was  soon  happily 
closed  arose  from  the  fact  that  a  French  vessel  which  sought 
to  carry  away  some  Kru  laborers  to  the  West  Indies  was 
attacked  by  these  men  when  they  had  reason  to  fear  that  they 
might  be  sold  into  slavery  and  not  have  to  work  simply  along 
the  coast,  as  they  at  first  supposed.  The  ship  was  seized  and 
all  but  one  of  the  crew,  the  physician,  were  killed.  Trouble 
meanwhile  continued  with  British  smugglers  in  the  West,  and 
to  this  whole  matter  we  shall  have  to  give  further  and  special 
attention.  In  1858  and  a  year  or  two  thereafter  the  numerous 
arrivals  from  America,  especially  of  Congo  men  captured  on 
the  high  seas,  were  such  as  to  present  a  serious  social  problem. 
Flagrant  violation  by  the  South  of  the  laws  against  the  slave- 

*  Karnga,  28. 


194    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

trade  led  to  the  seizure  by  the  United  States  Government  of 
many  Africans.  Hundreds  of  these  people  were  detained  at 
a  time  at  such  a  port  as  Key  West.  The  Government  then 
adopted  the  policy  of  ordering  commanders  who  seized  slave- 
ships  at  sea  to  land  the  Africans  directly  upon  the  coast  of 
Liberia  without  first  bringing  them  to  America,  and  appro- 
priated $250,000  for  the  removal  and  care  of  those  at  Key 
West.  The  suffering  of  many  of  these  people  is  one  of  the 
most  tragic  stories  in  the  history  of  slavery.  To  Liberia 
came  at  one  time  619,  at  another  867,  and  within  two  months 
as  many  as  4000.  There  was  very  naturally  consternation  on 
the  part  of  the  people  at  this  sudden  immigration,  especially 
as  many  of  the  Africans  arrived  cramped  or  paralyzed  or 
otherwise  ill  from  the  conditions  under  which  they  had  been 
forced  to  travel.  President  Benson  stated  the  problem  to  the 
American  Government;  the  United  States  sent  some  money 
to  Liberia,  the  people  of  the  Republic  helped  in  every  way 
they  could,  and  the  whole  situation  was  finally  adjusted  with- 
out any  permanently  bad  effects,  though  it  is  well  for  students 
to  remember  just  what  Liberia  had  to  face  at  this  time.  Im- 
portant toward  the  close  of  Benson's  terms  was  the  com- 
pletion of  the  building  of  the  Liberia  College,  of  which  Joseph 
Jenkin  Roberts  became  the  first  president. 

The  administrations  of  Daniel  Bashiel  Warner  (two  terms, 
1 864- 1 867)  and  the  earlier  one  of  James  Spriggs  Payne 
(1868-1869)  were  comparatively  uneventful.  Both  of  these 
men  were  Republicans,  but  Warner  represented  something  of 
the  shifting  of  political  parties  at  the  time.  At  first  a  Re- 
publican, he  went  over  to  the  Whig  party  devoted  to  the  policy 
of  preserving  Liberia  from  white  invasion.  Moved  to  dis- 
trust of  English  merchants,  who  delighted  in  defrauding  the 
little  republic,  he  established  an  important  Ports-of -Entry 
Law  in  1865,  which  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  was  very 
unpopular  with  the  foreigners.  Commerce  was  restricted  to 
six  ports  and  a  circle  six  miles  in  diameter  around  each  port. 
On  account  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  hopes  that  emancipation 
held  out  to  the  Negroes  in  the  United  States,  immigration 
from  America  ceased  rapidly;  but  a  company  of  346  came 
from  Barbadoes  at  this  time.     The  Liberian  Government  as- 


LIBERIA  195 

sisted  these  people  with  $4000,  set  apart  for  each  man  an 
allotment  of  twenty -five  rather  than  the  customary  ten  acres; 
the  Colonization  Society  appropriated  $10,000,  and  after  a 
pleasant  voyage  of  thirty-three  days  they  arrived  without  the 
loss  of  a  single  life.  In  the  company  was  a  little  boy,  Arthur 
Barclay,  who  was  later  to  be  known  as  the  President  ol  the 
Republic.  At  the  semi-centennial  of  the  American  Coloniza- 
tion Society  held  in  Washington  in  January,  1867,  it  was 
shown  that  the  Society  and  its  auxiliaries  had  been  directly 
responsible  for  the  sending  of  more  than  12,000  persons  to 
Africa.  Of  these  4541  had  been  born  free,  344  had  purchased 
their  freedom,  5957  had  been  emancipated  to  go  to  Africa, 
and  1227  had  been  settled  by  the  Maryland  Society.  In  addi- 
tion, 5722  captured  Africans  had  been  sent  to  Liberia.  The 
need  of  adequate  study  of  the  interior  having  more  and  more 
impressed  itself,  Benjamin  Anderson,  an  adventurous  ex- 
plorer, assisted  with  funds  by  a  citizen  of  New  York,  in  1869 
studied  the  country  for  two  hundred  miles  from  the  coast.  He 
found  the  land  constantly  rising,  and  made  his  way  to  Mu- 
sardu,  the  chief  city  of  the  western  Mandingoes.  He  summed 
up  his  work  in  his  Narrative  of  a  Journey  to  Musardo  and 
made  another  journey  of  exploration  in  1874. 

Edward  James  Roye  (1870-October  26,  1871),  a  Whig 
whose  party  was  formed  out  of  the  elements  of  the  old  True 
Liberian  party,  attracts  attention  by  reason  of  a  notorious  Brit- 
ish loan  to  which  further  reference  must  be  made.  Of  the 
whole  amount  of  £100,000  sums  were  wasted  or  misappro- 
priated until  it  has  been  estimated  that  the  country  really 
reaped  the  benefit  of  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  whole 
amount.  President  Roye  added  to  other  difficulties  by  his 
seizure  of  a  bank  building  belonging  to  an  Industrial  Society 
of  the  St.  Paul's  River  settlements,  and  by  attempting  by 
proclamation  to  lengthen  his  term  of  office.  Twice  a  consti- 
tutional amendment  for  lengthening  the  presidential  term  from 
two  years  to  four  had  been  considered  and  voted  down.  Roye 
contested  the  last  vote,  insisted  that  his  term  ran  to  January, 
1874,  and  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  the  coming  biennial 
election.    He  was  deposed,  his  house  sacked,  some  of  his  cabi- 


196     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

net  officers  tried  before  a  court  of  impeachment,*  and  he  him- 
self was  drowned  as  he  was  pursued  while  attempting  to  escape 
to  a  British  ship  in  the  harbor.  A  committee  of  three  was  ap- 
pointed to  govern  the  country  until  a  new  election  could  be 
held;  and  in  this  hour  of  storm  and  stress  the  people  turned 
once  more  to  the  guidance  of  their  old  leader,  Joseph  J.  Rob- 
erts (two  terms,  1872-1875).  His  efforts  were  mainly  de- 
voted to  restoring  order  and  confidence,  though  there  was  a 
new  war  with  the  Greboes  to  be  waged. f  He  was  succeeded 
by  another  trusted  leader,  James  S.  Payne  (1 876-1 877),  whose 
second  administration  was  as  devoid  as  the  first  of  striking 
incident.  In  fact,  the  whole  generation  succeeding  the  loan 
of  1 87 1  was  a  period  of  depression.  The  country  not  only 
suffered  financially,  but  faith  in  it  was  shaken  both  at  home 
and  abroad.  Coffee  grown  in  Liberia  fell  as  that  produced  at 
Brazil  grew  in  favor,  the  farmer  witnessing  a  drop  in  value 
from  24  to  4  cents  a  pound.  Farms  were  abandoned,  immi- 
gration from  the  United  States  ceased,  and  the  country  entered 
upon  a  period  of  stagnation  from  which  it  has  not  yet  fully 
recovered. 

Within  just  a  few  years  after  1871,  however,  conditions 
in  the  United  States  led  to  an  interesting  revival  of  the  whole 
idea  of  colonization,  and  to  noteworthy  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  Negroes  themselves  to  better  their  condition.  The  with- 
drawal of  Federal  troops  from  the  South,  and  all  the  evils 
of  the  aftermath  of  reconstruction,  led  to  such  a  terrorizing 
of  the  Negroes  and  such  a  denial  of  civil  rights  that  there 
set  in  the  movement  that  culminated  in  the  great  exodus  from 
the  South  in  1879.  The  movement  extended  all  the  way  from 
North  Carolina  to  Louisiana  and  Arkansas.  Insofar  as  it  led 
to  migration  to  Kansas  and  other  states  in  the  West,  it  be- 
longs to  American  history.  However,  there  was  also  interest 
in  going  to  Africa.  Applications  by  the  thousands  poured  in 
upon  the  American  Colonization  Society,  and  one  organiza- 
tion in  Arkansas  sent  hundreds  of  its  members  to  seek  the 

*  But  not  Hilary  R.  W.  Johnson,  the  efficient  Secretary  of  State,  later 
President. 

f  President  Roberts  died  February  21,  1876,  barely  two  months  after 
giving  up  office.  He  was  caught  in  the  rain  while  attending  a  funeral,  took 
a  severe  chill,  and  was  not  able  to  recover. 


LIBERIA  197 

help  of  the  New  York  State  Colonization  Society.  In  all  such 
endeavor  Negro  Baptists  and  Methodists  joined  hands,  and 
especially  prominent  was  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner,  of  the  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  By  1877  there  was  organized 
in  South  Carolina  the  Liberian  Exodus  and  Joint  Stock  Com- 
pany; in  North  Carolina  there  was  the  Freedmen's  Emigra- 
tion Aid  Society;  and  there  were  similar  organizations  in 
other  states.  The  South  Carolina  organization  had  the  three- 
fold purpose  of  emigration,  missionary  activity,  and  commer- 
cial enterprise,  and  to  these  ends  it  purchased  a  vessel,  the 
Azov,  at  a  cost  of  $7000.  The  white  people  of  Charleston 
unfortunately  embarrassed  the  enterprise  in  every  possible 
way,  among  other  things  insisting  when  the  Azor  was  ready 
to  sail  that  it  was  not  seaworthy  and  needed  a  new  copper 
bottom  (to  cost  $2000).  The  vessel  at  length  made  one  or 
two  trips,  however,  on  one  voyage  carrying  as  many  as  274 
emigrants.  It  was  then  stolen  and  sold  in  Liverpool,  and  one 
gets  an  interesting  sidelight  on  Southern  conditions  in  the 
period  when  he  knows  that  even  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court  in  South  Carolina  refused  to  entertain  the  suit  brought 
by  the  Negroes. 

In  the  administration  of  Anthony  W.  Gardiner  (three  terms, 
1 878- 1 883)  difficulties  with  England  and  Germany  reached  a 
crisis.  Territory  in  the  northwest  was  seized;  the  British 
made  a  formal  show  of  force  at  Monrovia;  and  the  looting 
of  a  German  vessel  along  the  Kru  Coast  and  personal  indig- 
nities inflicted  by  the  natives  upon  the  shipwrecked  Germans, 
led  to  the  bombardment  of  Nana  Kru  by  a  German  warship 
and  the  presentation  at  Monrovia  of  a  claim  for  damages,  pay- 
ment of  which  was  forced  by  the  threat  of  the  bombardment 
of  the  capital.  To  the  Liberian  people  the  outlook  was  seldom 
darker  than  in  this  period  of  calamities.  President  Gardiner, 
very  ill,  resigned  office  in  January  of  his  last  year  of  service, 
being  succeeded  by  the  vice-president,  Alfred  F.  Russell.  More 
and  more  was  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  Liberian  officials 
for  the  granting  of  monopolies  and  concessions,  especially  to 
Englishmen;  and  in  his  message  of  1883  President  Russell 
said,  "Recent  events  admonish  us  as  to  the  serious  responsi- 
bility of  claims  held  against  us  by  foreigners,  and  we  cannot 


198     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

tell  what  complications  may  arise."  In  the  midst  of  all  this, 
however,  Russell  did  not  forget  the  natives  and  the  need  of 
guarding  them  against  liquor  and  exploitation. 

Hilary  Richard  Wright  Johnson  (four  terms,  1884-1891), 
the  next  president,  was  a  son  of  the  distinguished  Elijah  John- 
son and  the  first  man  born  in  Liberia  who  had  risen  to  the 
highest  place  in  the  republic.  Whigs  and  Republicans  united 
in  his  election.  Much  of  his  time  had  necessarily  to  be  given 
to  complications  arising  from  the  loan  of  1871 ;  but  the  west- 
ern boundary  was  adjusted  (with  great  loss)  with  Great 
Britain  at  the  Mano  River,  though  new  difficulties  arose  with 
the  French,  who  were  pressing  their  claim  to  territory  as  far 
as  the  Cavalla  River.  In  the  course  of  the  last  term  of  Presi- 
dent Johnson  there  was  an  interesting  grant  (by  act  approved 
January  21,  1890)  to  F.  F.  Whittekin,  of  Pennsylvania,  of 
the  right  to  "construct,  maintain,  and  operate  a  system  of  rail- 
roads, telegraph  and  telephone  lines."  Whittekin  bought  up 
in  England  stock  to  the  value  of  half  a  million  dollars,  but 
died  on  the  way  to  Liberia  to  fulfil  his  contract.  His  nephew, 
F.  F.  Whittekin,  asked  for  an  extension  of  time,  which  was 
granted,  but  after  a  while  the  whole  project  languished.* 

Joseph  James  Cheeseman  (1892-November  15,  1896)  was 
a  Whig.  He  conducted  what  was  known  as  the  third  Grebo 
War  and  labored  especially  for  a  sound  currency.  He  was  a 
man  of  unusual  ability  and  his  devotion  to  his  task  undoubt- 
edly contributed  toward  his  death  in  office  near  the  middle  of 
his  third  term.  As  up  to  this  time  there  had  been  no  internal 
improvement  and  little  agricultural  or  industrial  development 
in  the  country,  O.  F.  Cook,  the  agent  of  the  New  York  State 
Colonization  Society,  in  1894  signified  to  the  legislature  a  de- 
sire to  establish  a  station  where  experiments  could  be  made 
as  to  the  best  means  of  introducing,  receiving,  and  propagat- 
ing beasts  of  burden,  commercial  plants,  etc.  His  request  was 
approved  and  one  thousand  acres  of  land  granted  for  the  pur- 
pose by  act  of  January  20,  1894.  Results,  however,  were 
neither  permanent  nor  far-reaching.  In  fact,  by  the  close  of 
the  century  immigration  had  practically  ceased  and  the  activi- 

*  See  Liberia,  Bulletin  No.  5,  November,  1894. 


LIBERIA  199 

ties  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  had  also  ceased, 
many  of  the  state  organizations  having  gone  out  of  existence. 
In  1893  Julius  C.  Stevens,  of  Goldsboro,  N.  C,  went  to  Liberia 
and  served  for  a  nominal  salary  as  agent  of  the  American  Col- 
onization Society,  becoming  also  a  teacher  in  the  Liberia  Col- 
lege and  in  time  Commissioner  of  Education,  in  connection 
with  which  post  he  edited  his  Liberian  School  Reader;  but 
he  died  in  1903.* 

William  D.  Coleman  as  vice-president  finished  the  incom- 
plete term  of  President  Cheeseman  (to  the  end  of  1897)  and 
later  was  elected  for  two  terms  in  his  own  right.  In  the  course 
of  his  last  administration,  however,  his  interior  policy  became 
very  unpopular,  as  he  was  thought  to  be  harsh  in  his  dealing 
with  the  natives,  and  he  resigned  in  December,  1900.  As 
there  was  at  the  time  no  vice-president,  he  was  succeeded  by 
the  Secretary  of  State,  Garretson  W.  Gibson,  a  man  of  schol- 
arly attainments,  who  was  afterwards  elected  for  a  whole  term 
(1902-1903).  The  feature  of  this  term  was  the  discussion 
that  arose  over  the  proposal  to  grant  a  concession  to  an  Eng- 
lish concern  known  as  the  West  African  Gold  Concessions, 
Ltd.  This  offered  to  the  legislators  a  bonus  of  £1500,  and 
for  this  bribe  it  asked  for  the  sole  right  to  prospect  for  and 
obtain  gold,  precious  stones,  and  all  other  minerals  over  more 
than  half  of  Liberia.  Specifically  it  asked  for  the  right  to 
acquire  freehold  land  and  to  take  up  leases  for  eighty  years, 
in  blocks  of  from  ten  to  a  thousand  acres;  to  import  all  min- 
ing machinery  and  all  other  things  necessary  free  of  duty;  to 
establish  banks  in  connection  with  the  mining  enterprises, 
these  to  have  the  power  to  issue  notes ;  to  construct  telegraphs 
and  telephones;  to  organize  auxiliary  syndicates;  and  to  estab- 
lish its  own  police.  It  would  seem  that  English  impudence 
could  hardly  go  further,  though  time  was  to  prove  that  there 
were  still  other  things  to  be  borne.  The  proposal  was  indig- 
nantly rejected. 

*  Interest  in  Liberia  by  no  means  completely  died.  Contributions  for 
education  were  sometimes  made  by  the  representative  organizations,  and 
individual  students  came  to  America  from  time  to  time.  When,  however, 
the  important  commission  representing  the  Government  came  to  America 
in  1908,  the  public  was  slightly  startled  as  having  heard  from  something 
half-forgotten. 


2oo     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Arthur  Barclay  (1904-1911)  had  already  served  in  three 
cabinet  positions  before  coming  to  the  presidency ;  he  had  also 
been  a  professor  in  the  Liberia  College  and  for  some  years 
had  been  known  as  the  leader  of  the  bar  in  Monrovia.  It  was 
near  the  close  of  his  second  term  that  the  president's  term  of 
office  was  lengthened  from  two  to  four  years,  and  he  was  the 
first  incumbent  to  serve  for  the  longer  period.  In  his  first 
inaugural  address  President  Barclay  emphasized  the  need  of 
developing  the  resources  of  the  hinterland  and  of  attaching 
the  native  tribes  to  the  interests  of  the  state.  In  his  foreign 
policy  he  was  generally  enlightened  and  broad-minded,  but 
he  had  to  deal  with  the  arrogance  of  England.  In  1906  a  new 
British  loan  was  negotiated.  This  also  was  for  f  100,000, 
more  than  two-thirds  of  which  amount  was  to  be  turned  over 
to  the  Liberian  Development  Company,  an  English  scheme 
for  the  development  of  the  interior.  The  Company  was  to 
work  in  cooperation  with  the  Liberian  Government,  and  as 
security  for  the  loan  British  officials  were  to  have  charge  of 
the  customs  revenue,  the  chief  inspector  acting  as  financial 
adviser  to  the  Republic.  It  afterwards  developed  that  the 
Company  never  had  any  resources  except  those  it  had  raised 
on  the  credit  of  the  Republic,  and  the  country  was  forced  to 
realize  that  it  had  been  cheated  a  second  time.  Meanwhile  the 
English  officials  who,  on  various  pretexts  of  reform,  had  taken 
charge  of  the  barracks  and  the  customs  in  Monrovia,  were 
carrying  things  with  a  high  hand.  The  Liberian  force  ap- 
peared with  English  insignia  on  the  uniforms,  and  in  various 
other  ways  the  commander  sought  to  overawe  the  populace. 
At  the  climax  of  the  difficulties,  on  February  13,  1909,  a  British 
warship  happened  to  appear  in  the  waters  of  Monrovia,  and 
a  calamity  was  averted  only  by  the  skillful  diplomacy  of  the 
Liberians.  Already,  however,  in  1908,  Liberia  had  sent  a 
special  commission  to  ask  the  aid  of  the  United  States.  This 
consisted  of  Garretson  W.  Gibson,  former  president;  J.  J. 
Dossen,  vice-president  at  the  time,  and  Charles  B.  Dunbar. 
The  commission  was  received  by  President  Roosevelt  and  by 
Secretary  Taft  just  before  the  latter  was  nominated  for  the 
presidency.     On  May  8,  1909,  a  return  commission  consisting 


LIBERIA  201 

of  Roland  P.  Falkner,  George  Sale,  and  Emmett  J.  Scott, 
arrived  in  Monrovia.  The  work  of  this  commission  must 
receive  further  and  special  attention. 

President  Barclay  was  succeeded  by  Daniel  Edward  How- 
ard (two  long  terms,  1912-1919),  who  at  his  inauguration 
began  the  policy  of  giving  prominence  to  the  native  chiefs. 
The  feature  of  President  Howard's  administrations  was  of 
course  Liberia's  connection  with  the  Great  War  in  Europe. 
War  against  Germany  having  been  declared,  on  the  morning 
of  April  10,  191 8,  a  submarine  came  to  Monrovia  and  de- 
manded that  the  French  wireless  station  be  torn  down.  The 
request  being  refused,  the  town  was  bombarded.  The  excite- 
ment of  the  day  was  such  as  has  never  been  duplicated  in  the 
history  of  Liberia.  In  one  house  two  young  girls  were  in- 
stantly killed  and  an  elderly  woman  and  a  little  boy  fatally 
wounded ;  but  except  in  this  one  home  the  actual  damage  was 
comparatively  slight,  though  there  might  have  been  more  if 
a  passing  British  steamer  had  not  put  the  submarine  to  flight. 
Suffering  of  another  and  more  far-reaching  sort  was  that  due 
to  the  economic  situation.  The  comparative  scarcity  of  food 
in  the  world  and  the  profiteering  of  foreign  merchants  in 
Liberia  by  the  summer  of  19 19  brought  about  a  condition  that 
threatened  starvation;  nor  was  the  situation  better  early  in 
1920,  when  butter  retailed  at  $1.25  a  pound,  sugar  at  72  cents 
a  pound,  and  oil  at  $1.00  a  gallon. 

President  Howard  was  succeeded  by  Charles  Dunbar  Bur- 
gess King,  who  as  president-elect  had  visited  Europe  and 
America,  and  who  was  inaugurated  January  5,  1920.  His 
address  on  this  occasion  was  a  comprehensive  presentation  of 
the  needs  of  Liberia,  especially  along  the  lines  of  agriculture 
and  education.  He  made  a  plea  also  for  an  enlightened  native 
policy.  Said  he:  "We  cannot  afford  to  destroy  the  native 
institutions  of  the  country.  Our  true  mission  lies  not  in  the 
building  here  in  Africa  of  a  Negro  state  based  solely  on  West- 
ern ideas,  but  rather  a  Negro  nationality  indigenous  to  the 
soil,  having  its  foundation  rooted  in  the  institutions  of  Africa 
and  purified  by  Western  thought  and  development." 


202    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 
3.     International  Relations 

Our  study  of  the  history  of  Liberia  has  suggested  two  or 
three  matters  that  call  for  special  attention.  Of  prime  im- 
portance is  the  country's  connection  with  world  politics.  Any 
consideration  of  Liberia's  international  relations  falls  into 
three  divisions:  first,  that  of  titles  to  land;  second,  that  of 
foreign  loans;  and  third,  that  of  so-called  internal  reform. 

In  the  very  early  years  of  the  colony  the  raids  of  slave- 
traders  gave  some  excuse  for  the  first  aggression  on  the  part 
of  a  European  power.  "Driven  from  the  Pongo  Regions 
northwest  of  Sierra  Leone,  Pedro  Blanco  settled  in  the  Gal- 
linhas  territory  northwest  of  the  Liber ian  frontier,  and  estab- 
lished elaborate  headquarters  for  his  mammoth  slave-trading 
operations  in  West  Africa,  with  slave-trading  sub-stations  at 
Cape  Mount,  St.  Paul  River,  Bassa,  and  at  other  points  of 
the  Liberian  coast,  employing  numerous  police,  watchers,  spies, 
and  servants.  To  obtain  jurisdiction  the  colony  of  Liberia 
began  to  purchase  from  the  lords  of  the  soil  as  early  as  1824 
the  lands  of  the  St.  Paul  Basin  and  the  Grain  Coast  from  the 
Mafa  River  on  the  west  to  the  Grand  Sesters  River  on  the 
east;  so  that  by  1845,  twenty-four  years  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  colony,  Liberia  with  the  aid  of  Great  Britain  had 
destroyed  throughout  these  regions  the  baneful  traffic  in  slaves 
and  the  slave  barracoons,  and  had  driven  the  slave-trading 
leaders  from  the  Liberian  coast."  *  The  trade  continued  to 
flourish,  however,  in  the  Gallinhas  territory,  and  in  course  of 
time,  as  we  have  seen,  the  colony  had  also  to  reckon  with  Brit- 
ish merchants  in  this  section,  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
in  1847  being  very  largely  a  result  of  the  defiance  of  Liberian 
revenue-laws  by  Englishmen.  While  President  Roberts  was 
in  England  not  long  after  his  inauguration,  Lord  Ashley, 
moved  by  motives  of  philanthropy,  undertook  to  raise  £2000 
with  which  he  (Roberts)  might  purchase  the  Gallinhas  ter- 
ritory; and  by  1856  Roberts  had  secured  the  title  and  deeds 
to  all  of  this  territory  from  the  Mafa  River  to  Sherbro 
Island.      The   whole    transaction    was    thoroughly   honorable, 

*  Ellis  in  Journal  of  Race  Development,  January,  191 1. 


LIBERIA  203 

Roberts  informed  England  of  his  acquisition,  and  his  right 
to  the  territory  was  not  then  called  in  question.  Trouble,  how- 
ever, developed  out  of  the  attitude  of  John  M.  Harris,  a 
British  merchant,  and  in  1862,  while  President  Benson  was 
in  England,  he  was  officially  informed  that  the  right  of  Liberia 
was  recognized  only  to  the  land  "east  of  Turner's  Peninsula 
to  the  River  San  Pedro."  Harris  now  worked  up  a  native 
war  against  the  Vais ;  the  Liberians  defended  themselves ;  and 
in  the  end  the  British  Government  demanded  £8878.9.3  as 
damages  for  losses  sustained  by  Harris,  and  arbitrarily  ex- 
tended its  territory  from  Sherbro  Island  to  Cape  Mount.  In 
the  course  of  the  discussion  claims  mounted  up  to  f  18,000. 
Great  Britain  promised  to  submit  this  boundary  question  to 
the  arbitration  of  the  United  States,  but  when  the  time  ar- 
rived at  the  meeting  of  one  of  the  commissions  in  Sierra  Leone 
she  firmly  declined  to  do  so.  After  this,  whenever  she  was 
ready  to  take  more  land  she  made  a  plausible  pretext  and  was 
ready  to  back  up  her  demands  with  force.  On  March  20, 
1882,  four  British  men-of-war  came  to  Monrovia  and  Sir 
A.  E.  Havelock,  Governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  came  ashore; 
and  President  Gardiner  was  forced  to  submit  to  an  agree- 
ment by  which,  in  exchange  for  £4750  and  the  abandonment 
of  all  further  claims,  the  Liberian  Government  gave  up  all 
right  to  the  Gallinhas  territory  from  Sherbro  Island  to  the 
Ma  fa  River.  This  agreement  was  repudiated  by  the  Liberian 
Senate,  but  when  Havelock  was  so  informed  he  replied,  "Her 
Majesty's  Government  can  not  in  any  case  recognize  any 
rights  on  the  part  of  Liberia  to  any  portions  of  the  territories 
in  dispute."  Liberia  now  issued  a  protest  to  other  great 
powers;  but  this  was  without  avail,  even  the  United  States 
counseling  acquiescence,  though  through  the  offices  of 
America  the  agreement  was  slightly  modified  and  the  boun- 
dary fixed  at  the  Mano  River.  Trouble  next  arose  on  the 
east.  In  1846  the  Maryland  Colonization  Society  purchased 
the  lands  of  the  Ivory  Coast  east  of  Cape  Palmas  as  far  as  the 
San  Pedro  River.  These  lands  were  formally  transferred  to 
Liberia  in  1857,  and  remained  in  the  undisputed  possession 
of  the  Republic  for  forty  years.  France  now,  not  to  be  out- 
done by  England,  on  the  pretext  of  title  deeds  obtained  by 


204    (SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

French  naval  commanders  who  visited  the  coast  in  1890,  in 
1 89 1  put  forth  a  claim  not  only  to  the  Ivory  Coast,  but  to 
land  as  far  away  as  Grand  Bassa  and  Cape  Mount.  The  next 
year,  under  threat  of  force,  she  compelled  Liberia  to  accept 
a  treaty  which,  for  25,000  francs  and  the  relinquishment  of 
all  other  claims,  permitted  her  to  take  all  the  territory  east 
of  the  Cavalla  River.  In  1904  Great  Britain  asked  permis- 
sion to  advance  her  troops  into  Liberian  territory  to  suppress 
a  native  war  threatening  her  interests.  She  occupied  at  this 
time  what  is  known  as  the  Kaure-Lahun  section,  which  is  very 
fertile  and  of  easy  access  to  the  Sierra  Leone  railway.  This 
land  she  never  gave  up;  instead  she  offered  Liberia  £6000 
or  some  poorer  land  for  it.  France  after  1892  made  no  en- 
deavor to  delimit  her  boundary,  and,  roused  by  the  action  of 
Great  Britain,  she  made  great  advances  in  the  hinterland, 
claiming  tracts  of  Maryland  and  Sino;  and  now  France  and 
England  each  threatened  to  take  more  land  if  the  other  was 
not  stopped.  President  Barclay  visited  both  countries;  but 
by  a  treaty  of  1907  his  commission  was  forced  to  permit 
France  to  occupy  all  the  territory  seized  by  force ;  and  as  soon 
as  this  agreement  was  reached  France  began  to  move  on  to 
other  land  in  the  basin  of  the  St.  Paul's  and  St.  John's  rivers. 
This  is  all  then  simply  one  more  story  of  the  oppression  of 
the  weak  by  the  strong.  For  eighty  years  England  has  not 
ceased  to  intermeddle  in  Liberian  affairs,  cajoling  or  brow- 
beating as  at  the  moment  seemed  advisable;  and  France  has 
been  only  less  bad.  Certainly  no  country  on  earth  now  has 
better  reason  than  Liberia  to  know  that  "they  should  get  who 
have  the  power,  and  they  should  keep  who  can." 

The  international  loans  and  the  attempts  at  reform  must 
be  considered  together.  In  1871,  at  the  rate  of  7  per  cent, 
there  was  authorized  a  British  loan  of  £100,000.  For  their 
services  the  British  negotiators  retained  £30,000,  and  £20,000 
more  was  deducted  as  the  interest  for  three  years.  President 
Roye  ordered  Mr.  Chinery,  a  British  subject  and  the  Liberian 
consul  general  in  London,  to  supply  the  Liberian  Secretary 
of  Treasury  with  goods  and  merchandise  to  the  value  of 
£10,000;  and  other  sums  were  misappropriated  until  the  coun- 
try itself  actually  received  the  benefit  of  not  more  than  £27,000, 


LIBERIA  205 

if  so  much.  This  whole  unfortunate  matter  was  an  embar- 
rassment to  Liberia  for  years;  but  in  1899  the  Republic  as- 
sumed responsibility  for  £80,000,  the  interest  being  made  a 
first  charge  on  the  customs  revenue.  In  1906,  not  yet  having 
learned  the  lesson  of  "Cavete  Graecos  dona  ferentes,"  and 
moved  by  the  representations  of  Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston,  the 
country  negotiated  a  new  loan  of  £100,000.  £30,000  of  this 
amount  was  to  satisfy  pressing  obligations;  but  the  greater 
portion  was  to  be  turned  over  to  the  Liberian  Development 
Company,  a  great  scheme  by  which  the  Government  and  the 
company  were  to  work  hand  in  hand  for  the  development  of 
the  country.  As  security  for  the  loan,  British  officials  were 
to  have  charge  of  the  customs  revenue,  the  chief  inspector 
acting  as  financial  adviser  to  the  Republic.  When  the  Com- 
pany had  made  a  road  of  fifteen  miles  in  one  district  and  made 
one  or  two  other  slight  improvements,  it  represented  to  the 
Liberian  Government  that  its  funds  were  exhausted.  When 
President  Barclay  asked  for  an  accounting  the  managing  di- 
rector expressed  surprise  that  such  a  demand  should  be  made 
upon  him.  The  Liberian  people  were  chagrined,  and  at  length 
they  realized  that  they  had  been  cheated  a  second  time,  with 
all  the  bitter  experiences  of  the  past  to  guide  them.  Mean- 
while the  English  representatives  in  the  country  were  de- 
manding that  the  judiciary  be  reformed,  that  the  frontier  force 
be  under  British  officers,  and  that  Inspector  Lamont  as  financial 
adviser  have  a  seat  in  the  Liberian  cabinet  and  a  veto  power 
over  all  expenditures;  and  the  independence  of  the  country 
was  threatened  if  these  demands  were  not  complied  with. 
Meanwhile  also  the  construction  of  barracks  went  forward 
under  Major  Cadell,  a  British  officer,  and  the  organization 
of  the  frontier  force  was  begun.  Not  less  than  a  third  of  this 
force  was  brought  from  Sierra  Leone,  and  the  whole  Cadell 
fitted  out  with  suits  and  caps  stamped  with  the  emblems  of 
His  Britannic  Majesty's  service.  He  also  persuaded  the  Mon- 
rovia city  government  to  let  him  act  without  compensation  as 
chief  of  police,  and  he  likewise  became  street  commissioner, 
tax  collector,  and  city  treasurer.  The  Liberian  people  nat- 
urally objected  to  the  usurping  of  all  these  prerogatives,  but 
Cadell  refused  to  resign  and  presented  a  large  bill   for  his 


206     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

services.  He  also  threatened  violence  to  the  President  if  his 
demands  were  not  met  within  twenty-four  hours.  Then  it 
was  that  the  British  warship,  the  Mutiny,  suddenly  appeared 
at  Monrovia  (February  12,  1909).  Happily  the  Liberians 
rose  to  the  emergency.  They  requested  that  any  British  sol- 
diers at  the  barracks  be  withdrawn  in  order  that  they  might 
be  free  to  deal  with  the  insurrectionary  movement  said  to  be 
there  on  the  part  of  Liberian  soldiers;  and  thus  tactfully  they 
brought  about  the  withdrawal  of  Major  Cadell. 

By  this  time,  however,  the  Liberian  commission  to  the 
United  States  had  done  its  work,  and  just  three  months  after 
Cadell's  retirement  the  return  American  commission  came. 
After  studying  the  situation  it  made  the  following  recommen- 
dations :  That  the  United  States  extend  its  aid  to  Liberia  in 
the  prompt  settlement  of  pending  boundary  disputes;  that  the 
United  States  enable  Liberia  to  refund  its  debt  by  assuming 
as  a  guarantee  for  the  payment  of  obligations  under  such 
arrangement  the  control  and  collection  of  the  Liberian  cus- 
toms ;  that  the  United  States  lend  its  assistance  to  the  Liberian 
Government  in  the  reform  of  its  internal  finances;  that  the 
United  States  lend  its  aid  to  Liberia  in  organizing  and  drilling 
an  adequate  constabulary  or  frontier  police  force;  that  the 
United  States  establish  and  maintain  a  research  station  at 
Liberia;  and  that  the  United  States  reopen  the  question  of 
establishing  a  coaling-station  in  Liberia.  Under  the  fourth 
of  these  recommendations  Major  (now  Colonel)  Charles 
Young  went  to  Liberia,  where  from  time  to  time  since  he 
has  rendered  most  efficient  service.  Arrangements  were  also 
made  for  a  new  loan,  one  of  $1,700,000,  which  was  to  be 
floated  by  banking  institutions  in  the  United  States,  Germany, 
France,  and  England;  and  in  19 12  an  American  General  Re- 
ceiver of  Customs  and  Financial  Adviser  to  the  Republic  of 
Liberia  (with  an  assistant  from  each  of  the  other  three  coun- 
tries mentioned)  opened  his  office  in  Monrovia.  It  will  be 
observed  that  a  complicated  and  expensive  receivership  was 
imposed  on  the  Liberian  people  when  an  arrangement  much 
more  simple  would  have  served.  The  loan  of  $1,700,000  soon 
proving  inadequate  for  any  large  development  of  the  country, 
negotiations  were  begun  in    191 8   for  a   new   loan,   one   of 


LIBERIA  207 

$5,000,000.  Among  the  things  proposed  were  improvements  on 
the  harbor  of  Monrovia,  some  good  roads  through  the  country, 
a  hospital,  and  the  broadening  of  the  work  of  education.  About 
the  loan  two  facts  were  outstanding:  first,  any  money  to  be 
spent  would  be  spent  wholly  under  American  and  not  under 
Liberian  auspices;  and,  second,  to  the  Liberians  acceptance 
of  the  terms  suggested  meant  practically  a  surrender  of  their 
sovereignty,  as  American  appointees  were  to  be  in  most  of 
the  important  positions  in  the  country,  at  the  same  time  that 
upon  themselves  would  fall  the  ultimate  burden  of  the  interest 
of  the  loan.  By  the  spring  of  1920  (in  Liberia,  the  com- 
mencement of  the  rainy  season)  it  was  interesting  to  note  that 
although  the  necessary  measures  of  approval  had  not  yet  been 
passed  by  the  Liberian  Congress,  perhaps  as  many  as  fifteen 
American  officials  had  come  out  to  the  country  to  begin  work 
in  education,  engineering,  and  sanitation.  Just  a  little  later 
in  the  year  President  King  called  an  extra  session  of  the  legis- 
lature to  consider  amendments.  While  it  was  in  session  a 
cablegram  from  the  United  States  was  received  saying  that 
no  amendments  to  the  plan  would  be  accepted  and  that  it  must 
be  accepted  as  submitted,  "or  the  friendly  interest  which  has 
heretofore  existed  would  become  lessened."  The  Liberians 
were  not  frightened,  however,  and  stood  firm.  Meanwhile  a 
new  presidential  election  took  place  in  the  United  States ;  there 
was  to  be  a  radical  change  in  the  government;  and  the  Libe- 
rians were  disposed  to  try  further  to  see  if  some  changes  could 
not  be  made  in  the  proposed  arrangements.  Most  watchfully 
from  month  to  month,  let  it  be  remembered,  England  and 
France  were  waiting;  and  in  any  case  it  could  easily  be 
seen  that  as  the  Republic  approached  its  centennial  it  was  face 
to  face  with  political  problems  of  the  very  first  magnitude.* 

4.     Economic  and  Social  Conditions 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  still 
much  to  be  done  in  Liberia  along  economic  lines.     There  has 

*  Early  in  1921  President  King  headed  a  new  commission  to  the  United 
States  to  take  up  the  whole  matter  of  Liberia  with  the  incoming  Repub- 
lican administration. 


208     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

been  some  beginning  in  cooperative  effort;  thus  the  Bassa 
Trading  Association  is  an  organization  for  mutual  betterment 
of  perhaps  as  many  as  fifty  responsible  merchants  and  farm- 
ers. The  country  has  as  yet  (1921),  however,  no  railroads, 
no  street  cars,  no  public  schools,  and  no  genuine  newspapers; 
nor  are  there  any  manufacturing  or  other  enterprises  for  the 
employment  of  young  men  on  a  large  scale.  The  most  promis- 
ing youth  accordingly  look  too  largely  to  an  outlet  in  politics ; 
some  come  to  America  to  be  educated  and  not  always  do  they 
return.  A  few  become  clerks  in  the  stores,  and  a  very  few 
assistants  in  the  customs  offices.  There  is  some  excellent 
agriculture  in  the  interior,  but  as  yet  no  means  of  getting  pro- 
duce to  market  on  a  large  scale.  In  19 19  the  total  customs 
revenue  at  Monrovia,  the  largest  port,  amounted  to  $196,- 
913.21.  For  the  whole  country  the  figure  has  recently  been 
just  about  half  a  million  dollars  a  year.  Much  of  this  amount 
goes  to  the  maintenance  of  the  frontier  force.  Within  the  last 
few  years  also  the  annual  income  for  the  city  of  Monrovia — 
for  the  payment  of  the  mayor,  the  police,  and  all  other  city 
officers — has  averaged  $6000. 

In  any  consideration  of  social  conditions  the  first  question 
of  all  of  course  is  that  of  the  character  of  the  people  them- 
selves. Unfortunately  Liberia  was  begun  with  faulty  ideals 
of  life  and  work.  The  early  settlers,  frequently  only  recently 
out  of  bondage,  too  often  felt  that  in  a  state  of  freedom  they 
did  not  have  to  work,  and  accordingly  they  imitated  the  habits 
of  the  old  master  class  of  the  South.  The  real  burden  of  life 
then  fell  upon  the  native.  There  is  still  considerable  feeling 
between  the  native  and  the  Americo-Liberian ;  but  more  and 
more  the  wisest  men  of  the  country  realize  that  the  good  of 
one  is  the  good  of  all,  and  they  are  endeavoring  to  make  the 
native  chiefs  work  for  the  common  welfare.  From  time  to 
time  the  people  of  Liberia  have  given  to  visitors  an  impression 
of  arrogance,  and  perhaps  no  one  thing  had  led  to  more  un- 
friendly criticism  of  this  country  than  this.  The  fact  is  that 
the  Liberians,  knowing  that  their  country  has  various  short- 
comings according  to  Western  standards,  are  quick  to  assume 
the  defensive,  and  one  method  of  protecting  themselves  is  by 
erecting  a  barrier  of  dignity  and  reserve.     One  has  only  to 


LIBERIA  209 

go  beyond  this,  however,  to  find  the  real  heartbeat  of  the 
people.  The  comparative  isolation  of  the  Republic  moreover, 
and  the  general  stress  of  living  conditions  have  together  given 
to  the  everyday  life  an  undue  seriousness  of  tone,  with  a  rather 
excessive  emphasis  on  the  church,  on  politics,  and  on  secret 
societies.  In  such  an  atmosphere  boys  and  girls  too  soon 
became  mature,  and  for  them  especially  one  might  wish  to 
see  a  little  more  wholesome  outdoor  amusement.  In  school 
or  college  catalogues  one  still  sees  much  of  jurisprudence  and 
moral  philosophy,  but  little  of  physics  or  biology.  Interest- 
ingly enough,  this  whole  system  of  education  and  life  has  not 
been  without  some  elements  of  very  genuine  culture.  Litera- 
ture has  been  mainly  in  the  diction  of  Shakespeare  and  Mil- 
ton ;  but  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  though  not  of  the  twentieth 
century,  are  still  good  models,  and  because  the  officials  have 
had  to  compose  many  state  documents  and  deliver  many  for- 
mal addresses,  there  has  been  developed  in  the  country  a  tradi- 
tion of  good  English  speech.  A  service  in  any  one  of  the 
representative  churches  is  dignified  and  impressive. 

The  churches  and  schools  of  Liberia  have  been  most  largely 
in  the  hands  of  the  Methodists  and  the  Episcopalians,  though 
the  Baptists,  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Lutherans  are  well 
represented.  The  Lutherans  have  penetrated  to  a  point  in  the 
interior  beyond  that  attained  by  any  other  denomination.  The 
Episcopalians  have  excelled  others,  even  the  Methodists,  by 
having  more  constant  and  efficient  oversight  of  their  work. 
The  Episcopalians  have  in  Liberia  a  little  more  than  40  schools, 
nearly  half  of  these  being  boarding-schools,  with  a  total  at- 
tendance of  2000.  The  Methodists  have  slightly  more  than 
30  schools,  with  2500  pupils.  The  Lutherans  in  their  five 
mission  stations  have  20  American  workers  and  300  pupils. 
While  it  seems  from  these  figures  that  the  number  of  those 
reached  is  small  in  proportion  to  the  outlay,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  a  mission  school  becomes  a  center  from  which 
influence  radiates  in  all  directions. 

While  the  enterprise  of  the  denominational  institutions  can 
not  be  doubted,  it  may  well  be  asked  if,  in  so  largely  relieving 
the  people  of  the  burden  of  the  education  of  their  children, 
they  are  not  unduly  cultivating  a  spirit  of  dependence  rather 


210    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

than  of  self-help.  Something  of  this  point  of  view  was  em- 
phasized by  the  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction,  Mr.  Walter 
F.  Walker,  in  an  address,  "Liberia  and  Her  Educational 
Problems,"  delivered  in  Chicago  in  1916.  Said  he  of  the 
day  schools  maintained  by  the  churches :  "These  day  schools 
did  invaluable  service  in  the  days  of  the  Colony  and  Com- 
monwealth, and,  indeed,  in  the  early  days  of  the  Republic; 
but  to  their  continuation  must  undoubtedly  be  ascribed  the 
tardy  recognition  of  the  government  and  people  of  the  fact 
that  no  agency  for  the  education  of  the  masses  is  as  effective 
as  the  public  school.  .  .  .  There  is  not  one  public  school  build- 
ing owned  by  the  government  or  by  any  city  or  township." 

It  might  further  be  said  that  just  now  in  Liberia  there  is  no 
institution  that  is  primarily  doing  college  work.  Two  schools 
in  Monrovia,  however,  call  for  special  remark.  The  College 
of  West  Africa,  formerly  Monrovia  Seminary,  was  founded 
by  the  Methodist  Church  in  1839.  The  institution  does  ele- 
mentary and  lower  high  school  work,  though  some  years  ago 
it  placed  a  little  more  emphasis  on  college  work  than  it  has 
been  able  to  do  within  recent  years.  It  was  of  this  college 
that  the  late  Bishop  A.  P.  Camphor  served  so  ably  as  presi- 
dent for  twelve  years.  Within  recent  years  it  has  recognized 
the  importance  of  industrial  work  and  has  had  in  all  depart- 
ments an  average  annual  enrollment  of  300.  Not  quite  so 
prominent  within  the  last  few  years,  but  with  more  tradition 
and  theoretically  at  the  head  of  the  educational  system  of  the 
Republic  is  the  Liberia  College.  In  1848  Simon  Greenleaf 
of  Boston,  received  from  John  Payne,  a  missionary  at  Cape 
Palmas,  a  request  for  his  assistance  in  building  a  theological 
school.  Out  of  this  suggestion  grew  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  Donations  for  Education  in  Liberia  incorporated  in  Massa- 
chusetts in  March,  1850.  The  next  year  the  Liberia  legisla- 
ture incorporated  the  Liberia  College,  it  being  understood  that 
the  institution  would  emphasize  academic  as  well  as  theological 
subjects.  In  1857  Ex-President  J.  J.  Roberts  was  elected 
president;  he  superintended  the  erection  of  a  large  building; 
and  in  1862  the  college  was  opened  for  work.  Since  then  it 
has  had  a  very  uneven  existence,  sometimes  enrolling,  aside 
from  its  preparatory  department,  twenty  or  thirty  college  stu- 


LIBERIA  211 

dents,  then  again  having  no  college  students  at  all.  Within 
the  last  few  years,  as  the  old  building  was  completely  out  of 
repair,  the  school  has  had  to  seek  temporary  quarters.  It  is 
too  vital  to  the  country  to  be  allowed  to  languish,  however, 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  may  soon  be  well  started  upon  a 
new  career  of  usefulness.  In  the  course  of  its  history  the 
Liberia  College  has  had  connected  with  it  some  very  distin- 
guished men.  Famous  as  teacher  and  lecturer,  and  president 
from  1 88 1  to  1885,  was  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden,  generally 
regarded  as  the  foremost  scholar  that  Western  Africa  has 
given  to  the  world.  Closely  associated  with  him  in  the  early 
years,  and  well  known  in  America  as  in  Africa,  was  Alexander 
Crummell,  who  brought  to  his  teaching  the  richness  of  English 
university  training.  A  trustee  for  a  number  of  years  was 
Samuel  David  Ferguson,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
who  served  with  great  dignity  and  resource  as  missionary 
bishop  of  the  country  from  1884  until  his  death  in  191 6.  A 
new  president  of  the  college,  Rev.  Nathaniel  H.  B.  Cassell, 
was  elected  in  19 18,  and  it  is  expected  that  under  his  efficient 
direction  the  school  will  go  forward  to  still  greater  years  of 
service. 

Important  in  connection  with  the  study  of  the  social  con- 
ditions in  Liberia  is  that  of  health  and  living  conditions.  One 
who  lives  in  America  and  knows  that  Africa  is  a  land  of  un- 
bounded riches  can  hardly  understand  the  extent  to  which  the 
West  Coast  has  been  exploited,  or  the  suffering  that  is  there 
just  now.  The  distress  is  most  acute  in  the  English  colonies, 
and  as  Liberia  is  so  close  to  Sierra  Leone  and  the  Gold  Coast, 
much  of  the  same  situation  prevails  there.  In  Monrovia  the 
only  bank  is  the  branch  of  the  Bank  of  British  West  Africa. 
In  the  branches  of  this  great  institution  all  along  the  coast, 
as  a  result  of  the  war,  gold  disappeared,  silver  became  very 
scarce,  and  the  common  form  of  currency  became  paper  notes, 
issued  in  denominations  as  low  as  one  and  two  shillings.  These 
the  natives  have  refused  to  accept.  They  go  even  further : 
rather  than  bring  their  produce  to  the  towns  and  receive  paper 
for  it  they  will  not  come  at  all.  In  Monrovia  an  effort  was 
made  to  introduce  the  British  West  African  paper  currency, 
and  while  this  failed,  more  and  more  the  merchants  insisted  on 


212    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

being  paid  in  silver,  nor  in  an  ordinary  purchase  would  silver 
be  given  in  change  on  an  English  ten-shilling  note.  Prices  ac- 
cordingly became  exorbitant ;  children  were  not  properly  nour- 
ished and  the  infant  mortality  grew  to  astonishing  proportions. 
Nor  were  conditions  made  better  by  the  lack  of  sanitation  and 
by  the  prevalence  of  disease.  Happily  relief  for  these  condi- 
tions— for  some  of  them  at  least — seems  to  be  in  sight,  and  it 
is  expected  that  before  very  long  a  hospital  will  be  erected  in 
Monrovia. 

One  or  two  reflections  suggest  themselves.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  circumstances  under  which  Liberia  was  founded  led 
to  a  despising  of  industrial  effort.  The  country  is  now  quite 
awake,  however,  to  the  advantages  of  industrial  and  agricul- 
tural enterprise.  A  matter  of  supreme  importance  is  that  of 
the  relation  of  the  Americo-Liberian  to  the  native;  this  will 
work  itself  out,  for  the  native  is  the  country's  chief  asset  for 
the  future.  In  general  the  Republic  needs  a  few  visible  evi- 
dences of  twentieth  century  standards  of  progress;  two  or 
three  high  schools  and  hospitals  built  on  the  American  plan 
would  work  wonders.  Finally  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that 
upon  the  American  Negro  rests  the  obligation  to  do  whatever 
he  can  to  help  to  develop  the  country.  If  he  will  but  firmly 
clasp  hands  with  his  brother  across  the  sea,  a  new  day  will 
dawn  for  American  Negro  and  Liberian  alike. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE 

I.     Current  Tendencies 

It  is  evident  from  what  has  been  said  already  that  the  idea 
of  the  Negro  current  about  1830  in  the  United  States  was  not 
very  exalted.  It  was  seriously  questioned  if  he  was  really  a 
human  being,  and  doctors  of  divinity  learnedly  expounded  the 
"Cursed  be  Canaan"  passage  as  applying  to  him.  A  prominent 
physician  of  Mobile  *  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  "the  brain 
of  the  Negro,  when  compared  with  the  Caucasian,  is  smaller 
by  a  tenth  .  .  .  and  the  intellect  is  wanting  in  the  same  pro- 
portion," and  finally  asserted  that  Negroes  could  not  live  in 
the  North  because  "a  cold  climate  so  freezes  their  brains  as 
to  make  them  insane."  About  mulattoes,  like  many  others,  he 
stretched  his  imagination  marvelously.  They  were  incapable 
of  undergoing  fatigue ;  the  women  were  very  delicate  and  sub- 
ject to  all  sorts  of  diseases,  and  they  did  not  beget  children 
as  readily  as  either  black  women  or  white  women.  In  fact, 
said  Nott,  between  the  ages  of  twenty-five  and  forty  mulattoes 
died  ten  times  as  fast  as  either  white  or  black  people ;  between 
forty  and  fifty-five  fifty  times  as  fast,  and  between  fifty-five 
and  seventy  one  hundred  times  as  fast. 

To  such  opinions  was  now  added  one  of  the  greatest  mis- 
fortunes that  have  befallen  the  Negro  race  in  its  entire  his- 
tory in  America — burlesque  on  the  stage.  When  in  1696 
Thomas  Southerne  adapted  Oroonoko  from  the  novel  of  Mrs. 
Aphra  Behn  and  presented  in  London  the  story  of  the  Afri- 
can prince  who  was  stolen  from  his  native  Angola,  no  one 
saw  any  reason  why  the  Negro  should  not  be  a  subject  for 

*  See  "Two  Lectures  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  Caucasian  and 
Negro  Races.     By  Josiah  C.  Nott,  M.D.,  Mobile,  1844." 


214     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

serious  treatment  on  the  stage,  and  the  play  was  a  great  suc- 
cess, lasting  for  decades.  In  1768,  however,  was  presented  at 
Drury  Lane  a  comic  opera,  The  Padlock,  and  a  very  prom- 
inent character  was  Mungo,  the  slave  of  a  West  Indian  planter, 
who  got  drunk  in  the  second  act  and  was  profane  throughout 
the  performance.  In  the  course  of  the  evening  Mungo  enter- 
tained the  audience  with  such  lines  as  the  following: 

Dear  heart,  what  a  terrible  life  I  am  led! 
A  dog  has  a  better,  that's  sheltered  and  fed. 

Night  and  day  'tis  the  same; 

My  pain  is  deir  game: 
Me  wish  to  de  Lord  me  was  dead ! 

Whate'er's  to  be  done, 

Poor  black  must  run. 

Mungo  here,  Mungo  dere, 

Mungo  everywhere : 

Above  and  below, 

Sirrah,  come;  sirrah,  go; 

Do  so,  and  do  so, 
Oh !  oh ! 
Me  wish  to  de  Lord  me  was  dead! 

The  depreciation  of  the  race  that  Mungo  started  continued, 
and  when  in  1781  Robinson  Crusoe  was  given  as  a  pantomime 
at  Drury  Lane,  Friday  was  represented  as  a  Negro.  The  exact 
origins  of  Negro  minstrelsy  are  not  altogether  clear ;  there  have 
been  many  claimants,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  in  passing 
that  there  was  an  ''African  Company"  playing  in  New  York 
in  the  early  twenties,  though  this  was  probably  nothing  more 
than  a  small  group  of  amateurs.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  beginning,  it  was  Thomas  D.  Rice  who  brought  the  form 
to  genuine  popularity.  In  Louisville  in  the  summer  of  1828, 
looking  from  one  of  the  back  windows  of  a  theater,  he  was 
attracted  by  an  old  and  decrepit  slave  who  did  odd  jobs  about 
a  livery  stable.  The  slave's  master  was  named  Crow  and  he 
called  himself  Jim  Crow.  His  right  shoulder  was  drawn  up 
high  and  his  left  leg  was  stiff  at  the  knee,  but  he  took  his 
deformity  lightly,  singing  as  he  worked.  He  had  one  favorite 
tune  to  which  he  had  fitted  words  of  his  own,  and  at  the  end 
of  each  verse  he  made  a  ludicrous  step  which  in  time  came  to 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  215 

be  known  as  "rocking  the  heel."    His  refrain  consisted  of  the 
words : 

Wheel  about,  turn  about, 

Do  jis  so, 
An'  ebery  time  I  wheel  about 

I  jump  Jim  Crow. 

Rice,  who  was  a  clever  and  versatile  performer,  caught  the 
air,  made  up  like  the  Negro,  and  in  the  course  of  the  next 
season  introduced  Jim  Crow  and  his  step  to  the  stage,  and 
so  successful  was  he  in  his  performance  that  on  his  first  night 
in  the  part  he  was  encored  twenty  times.*  Rice  had  many 
imitators  among  the  white  comedians  of  the  country,  some  of 
whom  indeed  claimed  priority  in  opening  up  the  new  field,  and 
along  with  their  burlesque  these  men  actually  touched  upon 
the  possibilities  of  plaintive  Negro  melodies,  which  they  of 
course  capitalized.  In  New  York  late  in  1842  four  men — 
"Dan"  Emmett,  Frank  Brower,  "Billy"  Whitlock,  and  "Dick" 
Pelham — practiced  together  with  fiddle  and  banjo,  "bones"  and 
tambourine,  and  thus  was  born  the  first  company,  the  "Vir- 
ginia Minstrels,"  which  made  its  formal  debut  in  New  York 
February  17,  1843.  ^ts  members  produced  in  connection  with 
their  work  all  sorts  of  popular  songs,  one  of  Emmett's  being 
"Dixie,"  which,  introduced  by  Mrs.  John  Wood  in  a  burlesque 
in  New  Orleans  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  leaped  into 
popularity  and  became  the  war-song  of  the  Confederacy.  Com- 
panies multipled  apace.  "Christy's  Minstrels"  claimed  priority 
to  the  company  already  mentioned,  but  did  not  actually  enter 
upon  its  New  York  career  until  1846.  "Bryant's  Minstrels" 
and  Buckley's  "New  Orleans  Serenaders"  were  only  two  others 
of  the  most  popular  aggregations  featuring  and  burlesquing 
the  Negro.  In  a  social  history  of  the  Negro  in  America,  how- 
ever, it  is  important  to  observe  in  passing  that  already,  even 
in  burlesque,  the  Negro  element  was  beginning  to  enthrall  the 
popular  mind.  About  the  same  time  as  minstrelsy  also  devel- 
oped the  habit  of  belittling  the  race  by  making  the  name  of 

*  See  Laurence  Hutton :  "The  Negro  on  the  Stage,"  in  Harper's 
Magazine,  79:137  (June,  1889),  referring  to  article  by  Edmon  S.  Conner 
in  New  York  Times,  June  5,  1881. 


216    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

some  prominent  and  worthy  Negro  a  term  of  contempt;  thus 
"cuffy"  (corrupted  from  Paul  Cuffe)  now  came  into  wide- 
spread use. 

This  was  not  all.  It  was  now  that  the  sinister  crime  of 
lynching  raised  its  head  in  defiance  of  all  law.  At  first  used 
as  a  form  of  punishment  for  outlaws  and  gamblers,  it  soon 
came  to  be  applied  especially  to  Negroes.  One  was  burned  alive 
near  Greenville,  S.  C,  in  1825 ;  in  May,  1835,  two  were  burned 
near  Mobile  for  the  murder  of  two  children;  and  for  the  years 
between  1823  and  i860  not  less  than  fifty-six  cases  of  the 
lynching  of  Negroes  have  been  ascertained,  though  no  one  will 
ever  know  how  many  lost  their  lives  without  leaving  any  rec- 
ord. Certainly  more  men  were  executed  illegally  than  legally ; 
thus  of  forty-six  recorded  murders  by  Negroes  of  owners  or 
overseers  between  1850  and  i860  twenty  resulted  in  legal  exe- 
cution and  twenty-six  in  lynching.  Violent  crimes  against 
white  women  were  not  relatively  any  more  numerous  than 
now;  but  those  that  occurred  or  were  attempted  received  swift 
punishment;  thus  of  seventeen  cases  of  rape  in  the  ten  years 
last  mentioned  Negroes  were  legally  executed  in  five  and 
lynched  in  twelve.* 

Extraordinary  attention  was  attracted  by  the  burning  in 
St.  Louis  in  1835  of  a  man  named  Mcintosh,  who  had  killed 
an  officer  who  was  trying  to  arrest  him.f  This  event  came  in 
the  midst  of  a  period  of  great  agitation,  and  it  was  for  de- 
nouncing this  lynching  that  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  had  his  print- 
ing-office destroyed  in  St.  Louis  and  was  forced  to  remove  to 
Alton,  111.,  where  his  press  was  three  times  destroyed  and 
where  he  finally  met  death  at  the  hands  of  a  mob  while  trying 
to  protect  his  property  November  7,  1837.  Judge  Lawless  de- 
fended the  lynching  and  even  William  Ellery  Channing  took  a 
compromising  view.  Abraham  Lincoln,  however,  then  a  very 
young  man,  in  an  address  on  "The  Perpetuation  of  Our  Politi- 
cal Institutions"  at  Springfield,  January  2j,  1837,  said:  "Ac- 
counts of  outrages  committed  by  mobs  form  the  everyday  news 
of  the  times.   They  have  pervaded  the  country  from  New  Eng- 

*  See  Hart:  Slavery  and  Abolition,  11  and  117,  citing  Cutler:  Lynch 
Law,  98-100  and  126-128. 

t  Cutler :   Lynch  Law,  109,  citing  Niles's  Register,  June  4,  1836. 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  217 

land  to  Louisiana;  they  are  neither  peculiar  to  the  eternal 
snows  of  the  former  nor  the  burning  suns  of  the  latter;  they 
are  not  the  creatures  of  climate,  neither  are  they  confined  to 
the  slaveholding  or  the  nonslaveholding  states.  .  .  .  Turn  to 
that  horror-striking  scene  at  St.  Louis.  A  single  victim  only 
was  sacrificed  there.  This  story  is  very  short,  and  is  perhaps 
the  most  highly  tragic  of  anything  that  has  ever  been  wit- 
nessed in  real  life.  A  mulatto  man  by  the  name  of  Mcintosh 
was  seized  in  the  street,  dragged  to  the  suburbs  of  the  city, 
chained  to  a  tree,  and  actually  burned  to  death ;  and  all  within 
a  single  hour  from  the  time  he  had  been  a  free  man  attending 
to  his  own  business  and  at  peace  with  the  world.  .  .  .  Such 
are  the  effects  of  mob  law,  and  such  are  the  scenes  becoming 
more  and  more  frequent  in  this  land  so  lately  famed  for  love 
of  law  and  order,  and  the  stories  of  which  have  even  now 
grown  too  familiar  to  attract  anything  more  than  an  idle 
remark/ ' 

All  the  while  flagrant  crimes  were  committed  against  Negro 
women  and  girls,  and  free  men  in  the  border  states  were  con- 
stantly being  dragged  into  slavery  by  kidnapers.  Two  typi- 
cal cases  will  serve  for  illustration.  George  Jones,  a  respect- 
able man  of  New  York,  was  in  1836  arrested  on  Broadway 
on  the  pretext  that  he  had  committed  assault  and  battery.  He 
refused  to  go  with  his  captors,  for  he  knew  that  he  had  done 
nothing  to  warrant  such  a  charge;  but  he  finally  yielded  on 
the  assurance  of  his  employer  that  everything  possible  would 
be  done  for  him.  He  was  placed  in  the  Bridewell  and  a  few 
minutes  afterwards  taken  before  a  magistrate,  to  whose  satis- 
faction he  was  proved  to  be  a  slave.  Thus,  in  less  than  two 
hours  after  his  arrest  he  was  hurried  away  by  the  kidnapers, 
whose  word  had  been  accepted  as  sufficient  evidence,  and  he 
had  not  been  permitted  to  secure  a  single  friendly  witness. 
Solomon  Northrup,  who  afterwards  wrote  an  account  of  his 
experiences,  was  a  free  man  who  lived  in  Saratoga  and  made 
his  living  by  working  about  the  hotels,  where  in  the  evenings 
he  often  played  the  violin  at  parties.  One  day  two  men,  sup- 
posedly managers  of  a  traveling  circus  company,  met  him  and 
offered  him  good  pay  if  he  would  go  with  them  as  a  violinist 
to  Washington.    He  consented,  and  some  mornings  afterwards 


218    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

awoke  to  find  himself  in  a  slave  pen  in  the  capital.  How  he 
got  there  was  ever  a  mystery  to  him,  but  evidently  he  had  been 
drugged.  He  was  taken  South  and  sold  to  a  hard  master, 
with  whom  he  remained  twelve  years  before  he  was  able  to 
effect  his  release.*  In  the  South  any  free  Negro  who  enter- 
tained a  runaway  might  himself  become  a  slave;  thus  in  South 
Carolina  in  1827  a  free  woman  with  her  three  children  suffered 
this  penalty  because  she  gave  succor  to  two  homeless  and 
fugitive  children  six  and  nine  years  old. 

Day  by  day,  moreover,  from  the  capital  of  the  nation  went 
on  the  internal  slave-trade.  "When  by  one  means  and  another 
a  dealer  had  gathered  twenty  or  more  likely  young  Negro  men 
and  girls,  he  would  bring  them  forth  from  their  cells;  would 
huddle  the  women  and  young  children  into  a  cart  or  wagon; 
would  handcuff  the  men  in  pairs,  the  right  hand  of  one  to 
the  left  hand  of  another;  make  the  handcuffs  fast  to  a  long 
chain  which  passed  between  each  pair  of  slaves,  and  would 
start  his  procession  southward."  f  It  is  not  strange  that  sev- 
eral of  the  unfortunate  people  committed  suicide.  One  dis- 
tracted mother,  about  to  be  separated  from  her  loved  ones, 
dumbfounded  the  nation  by  hurling  herself  from  the  window 
of  a  prison  in  the  capital  on  the  Sabbath  day  and  dying  in 
the  street  below. 

Meanwhile  even  in  the  free  states  the  disabilities  of  the 
Negro  continued.  In  general  he  was  denied  the  elective  fran- 
chise, the  right  of  petition,  the  right  to  enter  public  convey- 
ances or  places  of  amusement,  and  he  was  driven  into  a  status 
of  contempt  by  being  shut  out  from  the  army  and  the  militia. 
He  had  to  face  all  sorts  of  impediments  in  getting  education 
or  in  pursuing  honest  industry;  he  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  the  administration  of  justice;  and  generally  he  was 
subject  to  insult  and  outrage. 

One  might  have  supposed  that  on  all  this  proscription  and 
denial  of  the  ordinary  rights  of  human  beings  the  Christian 
Church  would  have  taken  a  positive  stand.  Unfortunately,  as 
so  often  happens,  it  was  on  the  side  of  property  and  vested 
interest  rather  than  on  that  of  the  oppressed.   We  have  already 

*  McDougall :    Fugitive  Slaves,  36-37. 
t  McMaster,  V,  219-220. 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  219 

seen  that  Southern  divines  held  slaves  and  countenanced  the 
system;  and  by  1840  James  G.  Birney  had  abundant  material 
for  his  indictment,  "The  American  Churches  the  Bulwarks  of 
American  Slavery."  He  showed  among  other  things  that  while 
in  1780  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  opposed  slavery 
and  in  1784  had  given  a  slaveholder  one  month  to  repent  or 
withdraw  from  its  conferences,  by  1836  it  had  so  drifted  away 
from  its  original  position  as  to  disclaim  "any  right,  wish,  or 
intention  to  interfere  in  the  civil  and  political  relation  between 
master  and  slave,  as  it  existed  in  the  slaveholding  states  of 
the  union."  Meanwhile  in  the  churches  of  the  North  there  was 
the  most  insulting  discrimination;  in  the  Baptist  Church  in 
Hartford  the  pews  for  Negroes  were  boarded  up  in  front,  and 
in  Stonington,  Conn.,  the  floor  was  cut  out  of  a  Negro's  pew 
by  order  of  the  church  authorities.  In  Boston,  in  a  church 
that  did  not  welcome  and  that  made  little  provision  for 
Negroes,  a  consecrated  deacon  invited  into  his  own  pew  some 
Negro  people,  whereupon  he  lost  the  right  to  hold  a  pew  in  his 
church.  He  decided  that  there  should  be  some  place  where 
there  might  be  more  freedom  of  thought  and  genuine  Chris- 
tianity, he  brought  others  into  the  plan,  and  the  effort  that  he 
put  forth  resulted  in  what  has  since  become  the  Tremont 
Temple  Baptist  Church. 

Into  all  this  proscription,  burlesque,  and  crime,  and  denial 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity,  suddenly  came 
the  program  of  the  Abolitionists ;  and  it  spoke  with  tongues  of 
fire,  and  had  all  the  vigor  and  force  of  a  crusade. 

2.     The  Challenge  of  the  Abolitionists 

The  great  difference  between  the  early  abolition  societies 
which  resulted  in  the  American  Convention  and  the  later  anti- 
slavery  movement  of  which  Garrison  was  the  representative 
figure  was  the  difference  between  a  humanitarian  impulse  tem- 
pered by  expediency  and  one  that  had  all  the  power  of  a  direct 
challenge.  Before  183 1  "in  the  South  the.  societies  were  more 
numerous,  the  members  no  less  earnest,  and  the  hatred  of 
slavery  no  less  bitter,  .  .  .  yet  the  conciliation  and  persuasion 


220     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

so  noticeable  in  the  earlier  period  in  twenty  years  accomplished 
practically  nothing  either  in  legislation  or  in  the  education  of 
public  sentiment;  while  gradual  changes  in  economic  condi- 
tions at  the  South  caused  the  question  to  grow  more  diffi- 
cult." *  Moreover,  "the  evidence  of  open-mindedness  can  not 
stand  against  the  many  instances  of  absolute  refusal  to  permit 
argument  against  slavery.  In  the  Colonial  Congress,  in  the 
Confederation,  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  in  the  state 
ratifying  conventions,  in  the  early  Congresses,  there  were 
many  vehement  denunciations  of  anything  which  seemed  to 
have  an  anti-slavery  tendency,  and  wholesale  suspicion  of  the 
North  at  all  times  when  the  subject  was  opened."  f  One  can 
not  forget  the  effort  of  James  G.  Birney,  or  that  Benjamin 
Lundy's  work  was  most  largely  done  in  what  we  should  now 
call  the  South,  or  that  between  1815  and  1828  at  least  four 
journals  which  avowed  the  extinction  of  slavery  as  one,  if 
not  the  chief  one,  of  their  objects  were  published  in  the  South- 
ern states.J  Only  gradual  emancipation,  however,  found  any 
real  support  in  the  South;  and,  as  compared  with  the  work  of 
Garrison,  even  that  of  Lundy  appears  in  the  distance  with 
something  of  the  mildness  of  "sweetness  and  light."  Even 
before  the  rise  of  Garrison,  Robert  James  Turnbull  of  South 
Carolina,  under  the  name  of  "Brutus,"  wrote  a  virulent  attack 
on  anti-slavery;  and  Representative  Drayton  of  the  same  state, 
speaking  in  Congress  in  1828,  said,  "Much  as  we  love  our 
country,  we  would  rather  see  our  cities  in  flames,  our  plains 
drenched  in  blood — rather  endure  all  the  calamities  of  civil 
war,  than  parley  for  an  instant  upon  the  right  of  any  power 
than  our  own  to  interfere  with  the  regulation  of  our  slaves."  § 
More  and  more  this  was  to  be  the  real  sentiment  of  the  South, 
and  in  the  face  of  this  kind  of  eloquence  and  passion  mere 
academic  discussion  was  powerless. 

The  Liberator  was  begun  January  1,  1831.  The  next  year 
Garrison  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the  formation  of  the  New 
England  Anti-Slavery   Society;   and   in   December,    1833,   in 

♦Adams:  The  Neglected  Period  of  Anti-Slavery,  1808-1831,  250- 
251. 

t  Ibid.,  no. 

t  William  Birney :    James  G.  Birney  and  His  Times,  85-86. 

§  Register  of  Debates,  4,975,  cited  by  Adams,  112-3. 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  221 

Philadelphia,  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  organ- 
ized. In  large  measure  these  organizations  were  an  outgrowth 
of  the  great  liberal  and  humanitarian  spirit  that  by  1830  had 
become  manifest  in  both  Europe  and  America.  Hugo  and 
Mazzini,  Byron  and  Macaulay  had  all  now  appeared  upon 
the  scene,  and  romanticism  was  regnant.  James  Montgomery 
and  William  Faber  wrote  their  hymns,  and  Reginald  Heber 
went  as  a  missionary  bishop  to  India.  Forty  years  afterwards 
the  French  Revolution  was  bearing  fruit.  France  herself  had 
a  new  revolution  in  1830,  and  in  this  same  year  the  kingdom 
of  Belgium  was  born.  In  England  there  was  the  remarkable 
reign  of  William  IV,  which  within  the  short  space  of  seven 
years  summed  up  in  legislation  reforms  that  had  been  agitated 
for  decades.  In  1832  came  the  great  Reform  Bill,  in  1833  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  English  dominions,  and  in  1834  a  revi- 
sion of  factory  legislation  and  the  poor  law.  Charles  Dickens 
and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  began  to  be  heard,  and  in 
1834  came  to  America  George  Thompson,  a  powerful  and  re- 
fined speaker  who  had  had  much  to  do  with  the  English  agita- 
tion against  slavery.  The  young  republic  of  the  United  States, 
lusty  and  self-confident,  was  seething  with  new  thought.  In 
New  England  the  humanitarian  movement  that  so  largely  be- 
gan with  the  Unitarianism  of  Channing  "ran  through  its  later 
phase  in  transcendentalism,  and  spent  its  last  strength  in  the 
anti-slavery  agitation  and  the  enthusiasms  of  the  Civil  War."  * 
The  movement  was  contemporary  with  the  preaching  of  many 
novel  gospels  in  religion,  in  sociology,  in  science,  education, 
and  medicine.  New  sects  were  formed,  like  the  Universalists, 
the  Spiritualists,  the  Second  Adventists,  the  Mormons,  and  the 
Shakers,  some  of  which  believed  in  trances  and  miracles,  others 
in  the  quick  coming  of  Christ,  and  still  others  in  the  reorgani- 
zation of  society ;  and  the  pseudo-sciences,  like  mesmerism  and 
phrenology,  had  numerous  followers.  The  ferment  has  long 
since  subsided,  and  much  that  was  then  seething  has  since 
gone  off  in  vapor;  but  when  all  that  was  spurious  has  been 
rejected,  we  find  that  the  general  impulse  was  but  a  new  bap- 
tism of  the  old  Puritan  spirit.    Transcendentalism  appealed  to 

*  Henry  A.  Beers :  Initial  Studies  in  American  Letters,  95-98  passim. 


222     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

the  private  consciousness  as  the  sole  standard  of  truth  and 
right.  With  kindred  movements  it  served  to  quicken  the  ethi- 
cal sense  of  a  nation  that  was  fast  becoming  materialistic  and 
to  nerve  it  for  the  conflict  that  sooner  or  later  had  to  come. 

In  his  salutatory  editorial  Garrison  said  with  reference  to 
his  position:  "In  Park  Street  Church,  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
1829,  in  an  address  on  slavery,  I  unreflectingly  assented  to  the 
popular  but  pernicious  doctrine  of  gradual  abolition.  I  seize 
this  opportunity  to  make  a  full  and  unequivocal  recantation, 
and  thus  publicly  to  ask  pardon  of  my  God,  of  my  country, 
and  of  my  brethren,  the  poor  slaves,  for  having  uttered  a  senti- 
ment so  full  of  timidity,  injustice,  and  absurdity.  ...  I  am 
aware  that  many  object  to  the  severity  of  my  language;  but 
is  there  not  cause  for  severity?  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth, 
and  as  uncompromising  as  justice.  On  this  subject,  I  do  not 
wish  to  think,  or  speak,  or  write,  with  moderation.  No!  no! 
Tell  a  man  whose  house  is  on  fire,  to  give  a  moderate  alarm ; 
tell  him  to  moderately  rescue  his  wife  from  the  hands  of  the 
ravisher;  tell  the  mother  to  gradually  extricate  her  babe  from 
the  fire  into  which  it  has  fallen;  but  urge  me  not  to  use  mod- 
eration in  a  cause  like  the  present!  I  am  in  earnest.  I  will 
not  equivocate — I  will  not  excuse — I  will  not  retreat  a  single 
inch — and  1  will  be  heard."  With  something  of  the  egotism 
that  comes  of  courage  in  a  holy  cause,  he  said :  "On  this  ques- 
tion my  influence,  humble  as  it  is,  is  felt  at  this  moment  to 
a  considerable  extent,  and  shall  be  felt  in  coming  years — not 
perniciously,  but  beneficially — not  as  a  curse,  but  as  a  bless- 
ing;   and    posterity    will    bear    testimony   that   1    WAS 

RIGHT." 

All  the  while,  in  speaking  to  the  Negro  people  themselves, 
Garrison  endeavored  to  beckon  them  to  the  highest  possible 
ground  of  personal  and  racial  self-respect.  Especially  did  he 
advise  them  to  seek  the  virtues  of  education  and  cooperation. 
Said  he  to  them :  *  "Support  each  other.  .  .  .  When  I  say 
'support  each  other,'  I  mean,  sell  to  each  other,  and  buy  of 
each  other,  in  preference  to  the  whites.    This  is  a  duty:  the 

*  "An  Address  delivered  before  the  Free  People  of  Color  in  Phila- 
delphia, New  York,  and  other  cities,  during  the  month  of  June,  1831,  by 
Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison.    Boston,  1831,"  pp.  14-18. 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  223 

whites  do  not  trade  with  you ;  why  should  you  give  them  your 
patronage?  If  one  of  your  number  opens  a  little  shop,  do  not 
pass  it  by  to  give  your  money  to  a  white  shopkeeper.  If  any 
has  a  trade,  employ  him  as  often  as  possible.  If  any  is  a 
good  teacher,  send  your  children  to  him,  and  be  proud  that 
he  is  one  of  your  color.  .  .  .  Maintain  your  rights,  in  all  cases, 
and  at  whatever  expense.  .  .  .  Wherever  you  are  allowed  to 
vote,  see  that  your  names  are  put  on  the  lists  of  voters,  and 
go  to  the  polls.  If  you  are  not  strong  enough  to  choose  a  man 
of  your  own  color,  give  your  votes  to  those  who  are  friendly 
to  your  cause;  but,  if  possible,  elect  intelligent  and  respect- 
able colored  men.  I  do  not  despair  of  seeing  the  time  when 
our  State  and  National  Assemblies  will  contain  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  colored  representatives — especially  if  the  proposed 
college  at  New  Haven  goes  into  successful  operation.  Will 
you  despair  now  so  many  champions  are  coming  to  your  help, 
and  the  trump  of  jubilee  is  sounding  long  and  loud;  when  is 
heard  a  voice  from  the  East,  a  voice  from  the  West,  a  voice 
from  the  North,  a  voice  from  the  South,  crying,  Liberty  and 
Equality  now,  Liberty  and  Equality  forever!  Will  you  despair, 
seeing  Truth,  and  Justice,  and  Mercy,  and  God,  and  Christ, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  on  your  side  ?  Oh,  no — never,  never 
despair  of  the  complete  attainment  of  your  rights !" 

To  second  such  sentiments  rose  a  remarkable  group  of  men 
and  women,  among  them  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  Wendell  Phil- 
lips, Theodore  Parker,  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  Lydia  Maria 
Child,  Samuel  J.  May,  William  Jay,  Charles  Sumner,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  and  John  Brown. 
Phillips,  the  "Plumed  Knight"  of  the  cause,  closed  his  law 
office  because  he  was  not  willing  to  swear  that  he  would  sup- 
port the  Constitution;  he  relinquished  the  franchise  because 
he  did  not  wish  to  have  any  responsibility  for  a  government 
that  countenanced  slavery ;  and  he  lost  sympathy  with  the  Chris- 
tian Church  because  of  its  compromising  attitude.  Garrison 
himself  termed  the  Constitution  "a  covenant  with  death  and 
an  agreement  with  hell."  Lydia  Maria  Child  in  1833  pub- 
lished an  Appeal  in  Favor  of  That  Class  of  Americans  Called 
Africans,  and  wrote  or  edited  numerous  other  books  for  the 
cause,  while  the  anti-slavery  poems  of  Whittier  are  now  a  part 


224     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  the  main  stream  of  American  literature.  The  Abolitionists 
repelled  many  conservative  men  by  their  refusal  to  countenance 
any  laws  that  recognized  slavery;  but  they  gained  force  when 
Congress  denied  them  the  right  of  petition  and  when  Presi- 
dent Jackson  refused  them  the  use  of  the  mails. 

There  could  be  no  question  as  to  the  directness  of  their 
attack.  They  held  up  the  slaveholder  to  scorn.  They  gave 
thousands  of  examples  of  the  inhumanity  of  the  system  of 
slavery,  publishing  scores  and  even  hundreds  of  tracts  and 
pamphlets.  They  called  the  attention  of  America  to  the  slave 
who  for  running  away  was  for  five  days  buried  in  the  ground 
up  to  his  chin  with  his  arms  tied  behind  him;  to  women  who 
were  whipped  because  they  did  not  breed  fast  enough  or  would 
not  yield  to  the  lust  of  planters  or  overseers;  to  men  who  were 
tied  to  be  whipped  and  then  left  bleeding,  or  who  were  branded 
with  hot  irons,  or  forced  to  wear  iron  yokes  and  clogs  and 
bells ;  to  the  Presbyterian  preacher  in  Georgia  who  tortured  a 
slave  until  he  died ;  to  a  woman  in  New  Jersey  who  was  "bound 
to  a  log,  and  scored  with  a  knife,  in  a  shocking  manner,  across 
her  back,  and  the  gashes  stuffed  with  salt,  after  which  she  was 
tied  to  a  post  in  a  cellar,  where,  after  suffering  three  days, 
death  kindly  terminated  her  misery" ;  and  finally  to  the  fact 
that  even  when  slaves  were  dead  they  were  not  left  in  peace, 
as  the  South  Carolina  Medical  College  in  Charleston  adver- 
tised that  the  bodies  were  used  for  dissection.*  In  the  face 
of  such  an  indictment  the  South  appeared  more  injured  and 
innocent  than  ever,  and  said  that  evils  had  been  greatly  exag- 
gerated. Perhaps  in  some  instances  they  were;  but  the  South 
and  everybody  also  knew  that  no  pen  could  nearly  do  justice 
to  some  of  the  things  that  were  possible  under  the  iniquitous 
and  abominable  system  of  American  slavery. 

The  Abolitionists,  however,  did  not  stop  with  a  mere  attack 
on  slavery.  Not  satisfied  with  the  mere  enumeration  of  ex- 
amples of  Negro  achievement,  they  made  even  higher  claims 
in  behalf  of  the  people  now  oppressed.    Said  Alexander  H. 

*  See  "American  Slavery  as  it  is :  Testimony  of  a  Thousand  Wit- 
nesses. By  Theodore  Dwight  Weld.  Published  by  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  New  York,  1839" ;  but  the  account  of  the  New  Jersey 
woman  is  from  "A  Portraiture  of  Domestic  Slavery  in  the  United  States, 
by  Jesse  Torrey,  Ballston  Spa,  Penn.,  1917,"  p.  67. 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  225 

Everett:*  "We  are  sometimes  told  that  all  these  efforts  will 
be  unavailing — that  the  African  is  a  degraded  member  of  the 
human  family — that  a  man  with  a  dark  skin  and  curled  hair 
is  necessarily,  as  such,  incapable  of  improvement  and  civiliza- 
tion, and  condemned  by  the  vice  of  his  physical  conformation 
to  vegetate  forever  in  a  state  of  hopeless  barbarism.  I  reject 
with  contempt  and  indignation  this  miserable  heresy.  In  reply- 
ing to  it  the  friends  of  truth  and  humanity  have  not  hitherto 
done  justice  to  the  argument.  In  order  to  prove  that  the 
blacks  were  capable  of  intellectual  efforts,  they  have  painfully 
collected  a  few  specimens  of  what  some  of  them  have  done  in 
this  way,  even  in  the  degraded  condition  which  they  occupy 
at  present  in  Christendom.  This  is  not  the  way  to  treat  the 
subject.  Go  back  to  an  earlier  period  in  the  history  of  our 
race.  See  what  the  blacks  were  and  what  they  did  three  thou- 
sand years  ago,  in  the  period  of  their  greatness  and  glory, 
when  they  occupied  the  forefront  in  the  march  of  civilization 
— when  they  constituted  in  fact  the  whole  civilized  world  of 
their  time.  Trace  this  very  civilization,  of  which  we  are  so 
proud,  to  its  origin,  and  see  where  you  will  find  it.  We  re- 
ceived it  from  our  European  ancestors :  they  had  it  from  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  the  Jews.  But,  sir,  where  did  the 
Greeks  and  the  Romans  and  the  Jews  get  it?  They  derived  it 
from  Ethiopia  and  Egypt — in  one  word,  from  Africa. f  .  .  . 
The  ruins  of  the  Egyptian  temples  laugh  to  scorn  the  archi- 
tectural monuments  of  any  other  part  of  the  world.  They  will 
be  what  they  are  now,  the  delight  and  admiration  of  travelers 
from  all  quarters,  when  the  grass  is  growing  on  the  sites  of 
St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's,  the  present  pride  of  Rome  and  Lon- 
don. ...  It  seems,  therefore,  that  for  this  very  civilization 
of  which  we  are  so  proud,  and  which  is  the  only  ground  of 
our  present  claim  of  superiority,  we  are  indebted  to  the  ances- 

*See  "The  Anti-Slavery  Pidknick:  a  collection  of  Speeches,  Poems, 
Dialogues,  and  Songs,  intended  for  use  in  schools  and  anti-slavery  meet- 
ings.    By  John  A.  Collins,  Boston,   1842,"   10-12. 

t  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  argument,  which  was  long  thought  to 
be  fallacious,  is  more  and  more  coming  to  be  substantiated  by  the 
researches  of  scholars,  and  that  not  only  as  affecting  Northern  but  also 
Negro  Africa.  Note  Lady  Lugard  (Flora  L.  Shaw)  :  A  Tropical  Depend- 
ency, London,  1906,  pp.  16-18. 


226    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

tors  of  these  very  blacks,  whom  we  are  pleased  to  consider  as 
naturally  incapable  of  civilization." 

In  adherence  to  their  convictions  the  Abolitionists  were  now 
to  give  a  demonstration  of  faith  in  humanity  such  as  has  never 
been  surpassed  except  by  Jesus  Christ  himself.  They  believed 
in  the  Negro  even  before  the  Negro  had  learned  to  believe  in 
himself.  Acting  on  their  doctrine  of  equal  rights,  they  trav- 
eled with  their  Negro  friends,  "sat  upon  the  same  platforms 
with  them,  ate  with  them,  and  one  enthusiastic  abolitionist 
white  couple  adopted  a  Negro  child."  * 

Garrison  appealed  to  posterity.  He  has  most  certainly  been 
justified  by  time.  Compared  with  his  high  stand  for  the  right, 
the  opportunism  of  such  a  man  as  Clay  shrivels  into  nothing- 
ness. Within  recent  years  a  distinguished  American  scholar,! 
writing  of  the  principles  for  which  he  and  his  co-workers 
stood,  has  said:  "The  race  question  transcends  any  academic 
inquiry  as  to  what  ought  to  have  been  done  in  1866.  It  affects 
the  North  as  well  as  the  South;  it  touches  the  daily  life  of  all 
of  our  citizens,  individually,  politically,  humanly.  It  molds 
the  child's  conception  of  democracy.  It  tests  the  faith  of  the 
adult.  It  is  by  no  means  an  American  problem  only.  What 
is  going  on  in  our  states,  North  and  South,  is  only  a  local 
phase  of  a  world-problem.  .  .  .  Now,  Whittier's  opinions 
upon  that  world-problem  are  unmistakable.  He  believed,  quite 
literally,  that  all  men  are  brothers;  that  oppression  of  one 
man  or  one  race  degrades  the  whole  human  family;  and  that 
there  should  be  the  fullest  equality  of  opportunity.  That  a 
mere  difference  in  color  should  close  the  door  of  civil,  indus- 
trial, and  political  hope  upon  any  individual  was  a  hateful 
thing  to  the  Quaker  poet.  The  whole  body  of  his  verse  is  a 
protest  against  the  assertion  of  race  pride,  against  the  empha- 
sis upon  racial  differences.  To  Whittier  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  a  'white  man's  civilization.'  The  only  distinction  was 
between  civilization  and  barbarism.  He  had  faith  in  educa- 
tion, in  equality  before  the  law,  in  freedom  of  opportunity, 
and  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  brotherhood. 

*Hart:    Slavery  and  Abolition,  245-6. 

t  Bliss   Perry:    "Whittier   for  To-Day,"   Atlantic   Monthly,  Vol.    100, 
851-859  (December,  1907). 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  227 

'They  are  rising, — 
All  are  rising, 
The  black  and  white  together.' 

This  faith  is  at  once  too  sentimental  and  too  dogmatic  to 
suit  those  persons  who  have  exalted  economic  efficiency  into 
a  fetish  and  who  have  talked  loudly  at  times — though  rather 
less  loudly  since  the  Russo-Japanese  War — about  the  white 
man's  task  of  governing  the  backward  races.  But  whatever 
progress  has  been  made  by  the  American  Negro  since  the  Civil 
War,  in  self-respect,  in  moral  and  intellectual  development,  and 
— for  that  matter — in  economic  efficiency,  has  been  due  to 
fidelity  to  those  principles  which  Whittier  and  other  like- 
minded  men  and  women  long  ago  enunciated*  The  immense 
tasks  which  still  remain,  alike  for  'higher'  as  for  'lower'  races, 
can  be  worked  out  by  following  Whittier's  program,  if  they 
can  be  worked  out  at  all." 


3.     The  Contest 

Even  before  the  Abolitionists  became  aggressive  a  test  law 
had  been  passed,  the  discussion  of  which  did  much  to  pre- 
pare for  their  coming.  Immediately  after  the  Denmark  Vesey 
insurrection  the  South  Carolina  legislature  voted  that  the 
moment  that  a  vessel  entered  a  port  in  the  state  with  a  free 
Negro  or  person  of  color  on  board  he  should  be  seized,  even 
if  he  was  the  cook,  the  steward,  or  a  mariner,  or  if  he  was 
a  citizen  of  another  state  or  country.f  The  sheriff  was  to  board 
the  vessel,  take  the  Negro  to  jail  and  detain  him  there  until 
the  vessel  was  actually  ready  to  leave.  The  master  of  the  ship 
was  then  to  pay  for  the  detention  of  the  Negro  and  take  him 
away,  or  pay  a  fine  of  $1,000  and  see  the  Negro  sold  as  a 
slave.  Within  a  short  time  after  this  enactment  was  passed, 
as  many  as  forty-one  vessels  were  deprived  of  one  or  more 
hands,  from  one  British  trading  vessel  almost  the  entire  crew 
being  taken.   The  captains  appealed  to  the  judge  of  the  United 

*  The  italics  are  our  own. 
t  Note  McMaster,  V,  200-204. 


228     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

States  District  Court,  who  with  alacrity  turned  the  matter 
over  to  the  state  courts.  Now  followed  much  legal  proceed- 
ing, with  an  appeal  to  higher  authorities,  in  the  course  of  which 
both  Canning  and  Adams  were  forced  to  consider  the  ques- 
tion, and  it  was  generally  recognized  that  the  act  violated  both 
the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  and  the  power  of  Congress  to 
regulate  trade.  To  all  of  this  South  Carolina  replied  that  as 
a  sovereign  state  she  had  the  right  to  interdict  the  entry  of 
foreigners,  that  in  fact  she  had  been  a  sovereign  state  at  the 
time  of  her  entrance  into  the  Union  and  that  she  never  had 
surrendered  the  right  to  exclude  free  Negroes.  Finally  she 
asserted  that  if  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  must  be  the  alterna- 
tive she  was  quite  prepared  to  abide  by  the  result.  Unusual 
excitement  arose  soon  afterwards  when  four  free  Negroes  on 
a  British  ship  were  seized  by  the  sheriff  and  dragged  from 
the  deck.  The  captain  had  to  go  to  heavy  expense  to  have 
these  men  released,  and  on  reaching  Liverpool  he  appealed  to 
the  Board  of  Trade.  The  British  minister  now  sent  a  more 
vigorous  protest,  Adams  referred  the  same  to  Wirt,  the  Attor- 
ney General,  and  Wirt  was  forced  to  declare  South  Carolina's 
act  unconstitutional  and  void.  His  opinion  with  a  copy  of 
the  British  protest  Adams  sent  to  the  Governor  of  the  state, 
who  immediately  transmitted  the  same  to  the  legislature.  Each 
branch  of  the  legislature  passed  resolutions  which  the  other 
would  not  accept,  but  neither  voted  to  repeal  the  law.  In  fact, 
it  remained  technically  in  force  until  the  Civil  War.  In  1844 
Massachusetts  sent  Samuel  Hoar  as  a  commissioner  to  Charles- 
ton to  make  a  test  case  of  a  Negro  who  had  been  deprived 
of  his  rights.  Hoar  cited  Article  II,  Section  2,  of  the  National 
Constitution  (''The  citizens  of  each  state  shall  be  entitled  to 
all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several 
states"),  intending  ultimately  to  bring  a  case  before  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court.  Wlien  he  appeared,  however,  the  South 
Carolina  legislature  voted  that  "this  agent  comes  here  not  as 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  but  as  an  emissary  of  a  foreign 
Government  hostile  to  our  domestic  institutions  and  with  the 
sole  purpose  of  subverting  our  internal  police."  Hoar  was 
at  length  notified  that  his  life  was  in  danger  and  he  was  forced 
to  leave  the  state.    Meanwhile  Southern  sentiment,  against  the 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  229 

American  Colonization  Society  had  crystallized,  and  the  ex- 
citement raised  by  David  Walker's  Appeal  was  exceeded  only 
by  that  occasioned  by  Nat  Turner's  insurrection. 

When,  then,  the  Abolitionists  began  their  campaign  the 
country  was  already  ripe  for  a  struggle,  and  in  the  North  as 
well  as  the  South  there  was  plenty  of  sentiment  unfavorable 
to  the  Negro.  In  July,  1831,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to 
start  a  manual  training  school  for  Negro  youth  in  New  Haven, 
the  citizens  at  a  public  meeting  declared  that  "the  founding 
of  colleges  for  educating  colored  people  is  an  unwarrantable 
and  dangerous  interference  with  the  internal  concerns  of  other 
states,  and  ought  to  be  discouraged" ;  and  they  ultimately 
forced  the  project  to  be  abandoned.  At  Canterbury  in  the 
same  state  Prudence  Crandall,  a  young  Quaker  woman  twenty- 
nine  years  of  age,  was  brought  face  to  face  with  the  problem 
when  she  admitted  a  Negro  girl,  Sarah  Harris,  to  her  school.* 
When  she  was  boycotted  she  announced  that  she  would  receive 
Negro  girls  only  if  no  others  would  attend,  and  she  advertised 
accordingly  in  the  Liberator.  She  was  subjected  to  various  in- 
dignities and  efforts  were  made  to  arrest  her  pupils  as  vagrants. 
As  she  was  still  undaunted,  her  opponents,  on  May  24,  1833, 
procured  a  special  act  of  the  legislature  forbidding,  under  se- 
vere penalties,  the  instruction  of  any  Negro  from  outside  the 
state  without  the  consent  of  the  town  authorities.  Under  this 
act  Miss  Crandall  was  arrested  and  imprisoned,  being  confined 
to  a  cell  which  had  just  been  vacated  by  a  murderer.  The 
Abolitionists  came  to  her  defense,  but  she  was  convicted,  and 
though  the  higher  courts  quashed  the  proceedings  on  techni- 
calities, the  village  shopkeepers  refused  to  sell  her  food, 
manure  was  thrown  into  her  well,  her  house  was  pelted  with 
rotten  eggs  and  at  last  demolished,  and  even  the  meeting-house 
in  the  town  was  closed  to  her.  The  attempt  to  continue  the 
school  was  then  abandoned.  In  1834  an  academy  was  built 
by  subscription  in  Canaan,  N.  H. ;  it  was  granted  a  charter  by 
the  legislature,  and  the  proprietors  determined  to  admit  all 
applicants  having  "suitable  moral  and  intellectual  recommen- 

*Note  especially  "Connecticut's  Canterbury  Tale;  its  Heroine,  Pru- 
dence Crandall,  and  its  Moral  for  To-Day,  by  John  C.  Kimball,"  Hart- 
ford (1886). 


23o     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

dations,  without  other  distinctions. "  The  town-meeting 
"viewed  with  abhorrence"  the  attempt  to  establish  the  school, 
but  when  it  was  opened  twenty-eight  white  and  fourteen  Negro 
scholars  attended.  The  town-meeting  then  ordered  that  the 
academy  be  forcibly  removed  and  appointed  a  committee  to 
execute  the  mandate.  Accordingly  on  August  10  three  hundred 
men  with  two  hundred  oxen  assembled,  took  the  edifice  from 
its  place,  dragged  it  for  some  distance  and  left  it  a  ruin.  From 
1834  to  1836,  in  fact,  throughout  the  country,  from  east  to 
west,  swept  a  wave  of  violence.  Not  less  than  twenty-five  at- 
tempts were  made  to  break  up  anti-slavery  meetings.  In  New 
York  in  October,  1833,  there  was  a  riot  in  Clinton  Hall,  and 
from  July  7  to  11  of  the  next  year  a  succession  of  riots  led 
to  the  sacking  of  the  house  of  Lewis  Tappan  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  other  houses  and  churches.  When  George  Thompson 
arrived  from  England  in  September,  1834,  his  meetings  were 
constantly  disturbed,  and  Garrison  himself  was  mobbed  in 
Boston  in  1835,  being  dragged  through  the  streets  with  a 
rope  around  his  body. 

In  general  the  Abolitionists  were  charged  by  the  South  with 
promoting  both  insurrection  and  the  amalgamation  of  the 
races.  There  was  no  clear  proof  of  these  charges;  neverthe- 
less, May  said,  "If  we  do  not  emancipate  our  slaves  by  our 
own  moral  energy,  they  will  emancipate  themselves  and  that 
by  a  process  too  horrible  to  contemplate" ;  *  and  Channing  said, 
"Allowing  that  amalgamation  is  to  be  anticipated,  then,  I 
maintain,  we  have  no  right  to  resist  it.  Then  it  is  not  un- 
natural." f  While  the  South  grew  hysterical  at  the  thought, 
it  was,  as  Hart  remarks,  a  fair  inquiry,  which  the  Abolition- 
ists did  not  hesitate  to  put — Who  was  responsible  for  the  only 
amalgamation  that  had  so  far  taken  place?  After  a  few  years 
there  was  a  cleavage  among  the  Abolitionists.  Some  of  the 
more  practical  men,  like  Birney,  Gerrit  Smith,  and  the  Tap- 
pans,  who  believed  in  fighting  through  governmental  machin- 
ery, in  1838  broke  away  from  the  others  and  prepared  to  take 
a  part  in  Federal  politics.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Lib- 
erty party,  which  nominated  Birney  for  the  presidency  in  1840 

*  Hart,  221,  citing  Liberator,  V,  59. 

t  Hart,  216,  citing  Channing,  Works,  V.  57. 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  231 

and  again  in  1844.  In  1848  it  became  merged  in  the  Free  Soil 
party  and  ultimately  in  the  Republican  party. 

With  the  forties  came  division  in  the  Church — a  sort  of  pre- 
lude to  the  great  events  that  were  to  thunder  through  the 
country  within  the  next  two  decades.  Could  the  Church  really 
countenance  slavery?  Could  a  bishop  hold  a  slave?  These 
were  to  become  burning  questions.  In  1844-5  the  Baptists  of 
the  North  and  East  refused  to  approve  the  sending  out  of 
missionaries  who  owned  slaves,  and  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention resulted.  In  1844,  when  James  O.  Andrew  came  into 
the  possession  of  slaves  by  his  marriage  to  a  widow  who  had 
these  as  a  legacy  from  her  former  husband,  the  Northern  Meth- 
odists refused  to  grant  that  one  of  their  bishops  might  hold 
a  slave,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  for- 
mally organized  in  Louisville  the  following  year.  The  Pres- 
byterians and  the  Episcopalians,  more  aristocratic  in  tone,  did 
not  divide. 

The  great  events  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  with  the  Mex- 
ican War  that  resulted,  the  Compromise  of  1850,  with  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  of  1854,  and 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  of  1857  were  all  regarded  in  the  North 
as  successive  steps  in  the  campaign  of  slavery,  though  now  in 
the  perspective  they  appear  as  vain  efforts  to  beat  back  a  re- 
sistless tide.  In  the  Mexican  War  it  was  freely  urged  by  the 
Mexicans  that,  should  the  American  line  break,  their  host 
would  soon  find  itself  among  the  rich  cities  of  the  South,  where 
perhaps  it  could  not  only  exact  money,  but  free  two  million 
slaves  as  well,  call  to  its  assistance  the  Indians,  and  even  draw 
aid  from  the  Abolitionists  in  the  North.*  Nothing  of  all 
this  was  to  be.  Out  of  the  academic  shades  of  Harvard, 
however,  at  last  came  a  tongue  of  flame.  In  "The  Present 
Crisis"  James  Russell  Lowell  produced  lines  whose  tremendous 
beat  was  like  a  stern  call  of  the  whole  country  to  duty : 

Once  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  the  moment  to  decide, 
In  the  strife  of  Truth  with  Falsehood,  for  the  good  or  evil  side; 
Some  great  cause,  God's  new  Messiah,  offering  each  the  bloom  or 
blight, 

*  Justin  H.  Smith:    The  War  with  Mexico,  I,  107. 


2$2     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Parts  the  goats  upon  the  left  hand,  and  the  sheep  upon  the  right, 
And  the  choice  goes  by  forever  'twixt  that  darkness  and  that  light. 

Then  to  side  with  Truth  is  noble  when  we  share  her  wretched  crust, 
Ere  her  cause  bring  fame  and  profit  and  'tis  prosperous  to  be  just; 
Then  it  is  the  brave  man  chooses,  while  the  coward  stands  aside, 
Doubting  in  his  abject  spirit,  till  his  Lord  is  crucified, 
And  the  multitude  make  virtue  of  the  faith  they  had  denied. 

New  occasions  teach  new  duties;  Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth; 
They  must  upward  still  and  onward,   who  would  keep  abreast  of 

Truth; 
Lo,  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires !  we  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 
Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  winter 

sea, 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key. 

As  "The  Present  Crisis"  came  after  the  Mexican  War,  so 
after  the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Law  appeared  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  (1852).  "When  despairing  Hungarian  fugitives  make 
their  way,  against  all  the  search-warrants  and  authorities  of 
their  lawful  governments,  to  America,  press  and  political  cab- 
inet ring  with  applause  and  welcome.  When  despairing  Afri- 
can fugitives  do  the  same  thing — it  is — what  is  it?"  asked 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe;  and  in  her  remarkable  book  she  pro- 
ceeded to  show  the  injustice  of  the  national  position.  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin  has  frequently  been  termed  a  piece  of  propaganda 
that  gave  an  overdrawn  picture  of  Southern  conditions.  The 
author,  however,  had  abundant  proof  for  her  incidents,  and 
she  was  quite  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  problem  of  the  Negro, 
North  as  well  as  South,  transcended  the  question  of  slavery. 
Said  St.  Clair  to  Ophelia:  "If  we  emancipate,  are  you  willing 
to  educate?  How  many  families  of  your  town  would  take  in 
a  Negro  man  or  woman,  teach  them,  bear  with  them,  and 
seek  to  make  them  Christians?  How  many  merchants  would 
take  Adolph,  if  I  wanted  to  make  him  a  clerk;  or  mechanics, 
if  I  wanted  to  teach  him  a  trade?  If  I  wanted  to  put  Jane 
and  Rosa  to  school,  how  many  schools  are  there  in  the  North- 
ern states  that  would  take  them  in  ?  .  .  .  We  are  in  a  bad  posi- 
tion.  We  are  the  more  obvious  oppressors  of  the  Negro;  but 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  233 

the  unchristian  prejudice  of  the  North  is  an  oppressor  almost 
equally  severe." 

Meanwhile  the  thrilling  work  of  the  Underground  Railroad 
was  answered  by  a  practical  reopening  of  the  slave-trade.  From 
1820  to  1840,  as  the  result  of  the  repressive  measure  of  18 19, 
the  traffic  had  declined;  between  1850  and  i860,  however,  it 
was  greatly  revived,  and  Southern  conventions  resolved  that 
all  laws,  state  or  Federal,  prohibiting  the  slave-trade,  should 
be  repealed.  The  traffic  became  more  and  more  open  and  de- 
fiant until,  as  Stephen  A.  Douglas  computed,  as  many  as  15,000 
slaves  were  brought  into  the  country  in  1859.  It  was  not  until 
the  Lincoln  government  in  1862  hanged  the  first  trader  who 
ever  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law,  and  made  with 
Great  Britain  a  treaty  embodying  the  principle  of  international 
right  of  search,  that  the  trade  was  effectually  checked.  By 
the  end  of  the  war  it  was  entirely  suppressed,  though  as  late 
as  1866  a  squadron  of  ships  patrolled  the  slave  coast. 

The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  repealing  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise and  providing  for  "squatter  sovereignty"  in  the  terri- 
tories in  question,  outraged  the  North  and  led  immediately  to 
the  forming  of  the  Republican  party.  It  was  not  long  before 
public  sentiment  began  to  make  itself  felt,  and  the  first  dem- 
onstration took  place  in  Boston.  Anthony  Burns  was  a  slave 
who  escaped  from  Virginia  and  made  his  way  to  Boston, 
where  he  was  at  work  in  the  winter  of  1853-4.  He  was  dis- 
covered by  a  United  States  marshal  who  presented  a  writ  for 
his  arrest  just  at  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise in  May,  1854.  Public  feeling  became  greatly  aroused. 
Wendell  Phillips  and  Theodore  Parker  delivered  strong  ad- 
dresses at  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  while  an  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt to  rescue  Burns  from  the  Court  House  was  made  under 
the  leadership  of  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  who  with 
others  of  the  attacking  party  was  wounded.  It  was  finally  de- 
cided in  court  that  Burns  must  be  returned  to  his  master. 
The  law  was  obeyed;  but  Boston  had  been  made  very  angry, 
and  generally  her  feeling  had  counted  for  something  in  the 
history  of  the  country.  The  people  draped  their  houses  in 
mourning,  hissed  the  procession  that  took  Burns  to  his  ship, 
and  at  the  wharf  a  riot  was  averted  only  by  a  minister's  call 


234     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

to  prayer.  This  incident  did  more  to  crystallize  Northern  senti- 
ment against  slavery  than  any  other  except  the  exploit  of 
John  Brown,  and  this  was  the  last  time  that  a  fugitive  slave 
was  taken  out  of  Boston.  Burns  himself  was  afterwards 
bought  by  popular  subscription,  and  ultimately  became  a  Bap- 
tist minister  in  Canada. 

In  1834  Dr.  Emerson,  an  army  officer  stationed  in  Missouri, 
removed  to  Illinois,  taking  with  him  his  slave,  Dred  Scott. 
Two  years  later,  again  accompanied  by  Scott,  he  went  to  Min- 
nesota. In  Illinois  slavery  was  prohibited  by  state  law  and 
Minnesota  was  a  free  territory.  In  1838  Emerson  returned 
with  Scott  to  Missouri.  After  a  while  the  slave  raised  the 
important  question :  Had  not  his  residence  outside  of  a  slave 
state  made  him  a  free  man?  Beaten  by  his  master  in  1848, 
with  the  aid  of  anti-slavery  lawyers  Scott  brought  a  suit 
against  him  for  assault  and  battery,  the  circuit  court  of 
St.  Louis  rendering  a  decision  in  his  favor.  Emerson  appealed 
and  in  1852  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state  reversed  the  deci- 
sion of  the  lower  court.  Not  long  after  this  Emerson  sold 
Scott  to  a  citizen  of  New  York  named  Sandford.  Scott  now 
brought  suit  against  Sandford,  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
citizens  of  different  states.  The  case  finally  reached  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  which  in  1857  handed  down 
the  decision  that  Scott  was  not  a  citizen  of  Missouri  and  had 
no  standing  in  the  Federal  courts,  that  a  slave  was  only  a 
piece  of  property,  and  that  a  master  might  take  his  property 
with  impunity  to  any  place  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States.  The  ownership  of  Scott  and  his  family  soon 
passed  to  a  Massachusetts  family  by  whom  they  were  liber- 
ated; but  the  important  decision  that  the  case  had  called  forth 
aroused  the  most  intense  excitement  throughout  the  country, 
and  somehow  out  of  it  all  people  remembered  more  than  any- 
thing else  the  amazing  declaration  of  Chief  Justice  Taney  that 
"the  Negroes  were  so  far  inferior  that  they  had  no  rights 
which  the  white  man  was  bound  to  respect."  The  extra-legal 
character  and  the  general  fallacy  of  his  position  were  exposed 
by  Justice  Curtis  in  a  masterly  dissenting  opinion. 

No  one  incident  of  the  period  showed  more  clearly  the  ten- 
sion under  which  the  country  was  laboring  than  the  assault 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  235 

on  Charles  Sumner  by  Preston  S.  Brooks,  a  congressional 
representative  from  South  Carolina.  As  a  result  of  this  re- 
grettable occurrence  splendid  canes  with  such  inscriptions  as 
"Hit  him  again"  and  "Use  knock-down  arguments"  were  sent 
to  Brooks  from  different  parts  of  the  South  and  he  was  tri- 
umphantly reelected  by  his  constituency,  while  on  the  other 
hand  resolutions  denouncing  him  were  passed  all  over  the 
North,  in  Canada,  and  even  in  Europe.  More  than  ever  the 
South  was  thrown  on  the  defensive,  and  in  impassioned 
speeches  Robert  Toombs  now  glorified  his  state  and  his  sec- 
tion. Speaking  at  Emory  College  in  1853  he  had  already  made 
an  extended  apology  for  slavery ;  *  speaking  in  the  Georgia 
legislature  on  the  eve  of  secession  he  contended  that  the  South 
had  been  driven  to  bay  by  the  Abolitionists  and  must  now 
"expand  or  perish."  A  writer  in  the  Southern  Literary  Mes- 
senger,^ in  an  article  "The  Black  Race  in  North  America," 
made  the  astonishing  statement  that  "the  slavery  of  the  black 
race  on  this  continent  is  the  price  America  has  paid  for  her 
liberty,  civil  and  religious,  and,  humanly  speaking,  these  bless- 
ings would  have  been  unattainable  without  their  aid."  Benja- 
min M.  Palmer,  a  distinguished  minister  of  New  Orleans,  in 
a  widely  quoted  sermon  in  i860  spoke  of  the  peculiar  trust 
that  had  been  given  to  the  South — to  be  the  guardians  of  the 
slaves,  the  conservers  of  the  world's  industry,  and  the  de- 
fenders of  the  cause  of  religion. J  "The  blooms  upon  South- 
ern fields  gathered  by  black  hands  have  fed  the  spindles  and 
looms  of  Manchester  and  Birmingham  not  less  than  of  Law- 
rence and  Lowell.  Strike  now  a  blow  at  this  system  of  labor 
and  the  world  itself  totters  at  the  stroke.  Shall  we  permit 
that  blow  to  fall?  Do  we  not  owe  it  to  civilized  man  to  stand 
in  the  breach  and  stay  the  uplifted  arm?  .  .  .  This  trust  we 
will  discharge  in  the  face  of  the  worst  possible  peril.  Though 
war  be  the  aggregation  of  all  evils,  yet,  should  the  madness 

*  See  "An  Oration  delivered  before  the  Few  and  Phi  Gamma  Societies 
of  Emory  College:  Slavery  in  the  United  States;  its  consistency  with 
republican  institutions,  and  its  effects  upon  the  slave  and  society.  Augusta, 
Ga.,  1853." 

t  November,  1855. 

$"The  Rights  of  the  South  defended  in  the  Pulpits,  by  B.  M. 
Palmer,  D.D.,  and  W.  T.  Leacock,  D.D.,  Mobile,  i860." 


236    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  the  hour  appeal  to  the  arbitration  of  the  sword,  we  will 
not  shrink  even  from  the  baptism  of  fire.  .  .  .  The  position 
of  the  South  is  at  this  moment  sublime.  If  she  has  grace 
given  her  to  know  her  hour,  she  will  save  herself,  the  country, 
and  the  world." 

All  of  this  was  very  earnest  and  very  eloquent,  but  also 
very  mistaken,  and  the  general  fallacy  of  the  South's  position 
was  shown  by  no  less  a  man  than  he  who  afterwards  became 
vice-president  of  the  Confederacy.  Speaking  in  the  Georgia 
legislature  in  opposition  to  the  motion  for  secession,  Stephens 
said  that  the  South  had  no  reason  to  feel  aggrieved,  for  all 
along  she  had  received  more  than  her  share  of  the  nation's 
privileges,  and  had  almost  always  won  in  the  main  that  which 
was  demanded.  She  had  had  sixty  years  of  presidents  to  the 
North's  twenty-four;  two-thirds  of  the  clerkships  and  other 
appointments  although  the  white  population  in  the  section 
was  only  one-third  that  of  the  country;  fourteen  attorneys  gen- 
eral to  the  North's  five;  and  eighteen  Supreme  Court  judges 
to  the  North's  eleven,  although  four-fifths  of  the  business  of 
the  court  originated  in  the  free  states.  "This,"  said  Stephens 
in  an  astonishing  declaration,  "we  have  required  so  as  to  guard 
against  any  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  unfavorable  to 
us." 

Still  another  voice  from  the  South,  in  a  slightly  different 
key,  attacked  the  tendencies  in  the  section.  The  Impending 
Crisis  (1857),  by  Hinton  Rowan  Helper,  of  North  Carolina, 
was  surpassed  in  sensational  interest  by  no  other  book  of  the 
period  except  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  The  author  did  not  place 
himself  upon  the  broadest  principles  of  humanity  and  states- 
manship; he  had  no  concern  for  the  Negro,  and  the  great 
planters  of  the  South  were  to  him  simply  the  " whelps"  and 
"curs"  of  slavery.  He  spoke  merely  as  the  voice  of  the  non- 
slaveholding  white  men  in  the  South.  He  set  forth  such  un- 
pleasant truths  as  that  the  personal  and  real  property,  includ- 
ing slaves,  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  Florida,  and  Texas,  taken  all  together,  was  less  than 
the  real  and  personal  estate  in  the  single  state  of  New  York; 
that  representation  in  Southern  legislatures  was  unfair;  that 
in  Congress  a  Southern  planter  was  twice  as  powerful  as  a 


THE  NEGRO  A  NATIONAL  ISSUE  237 

Northern  man;  that  slavery  was  to  blame  for  the  migration 
from  the  South  to  the  West ;  and  that  in  short  the  system  was 
in  every  way  harmful  to  the  man  of  limited  means.  All  of 
this  was  decidedly  unpleasant  to  the  ears  of  the  property  own- 
ers of  the  South ;  Helper's  book  was  proscribed,  and  the  author 
himself  found  it  more  advisable  to  live  in  New  York  than  in 
his  native  state.  The  Impending  Crisis  was  eagerly  read,  how- 
ever, and  it  succeeded  as  a  book  because  it  attempted  to  attack 
with  some  degree  of  honesty  a  great  economic  problem. 

The  time  for  speeches  and  books,  however,  was  over,  and 
the  time  for  action  had  come.  For  years  the  slave  had  chanted, 
"I've  been  listenin'  all  the  night  long" ;  and  his  prayer  had 
reached  the  throne.  On  October  16,  1859,  John  Brown  made 
his  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry  and  took  his  place  with  the  im- 
mortals. In  the  long  and  bitter  contest  on  American  slavery 
the  Abolitionists  had  won. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOCIAL  PROGRESS,   l820-l86o  * 

So  far  in  our  study  we  have  seen  the  Negro  as  the  object 
of  interest  on  the  part  of  the  American  people.  Some  were  dis- 
posed to  give  him  a  helping  hand,  some  to  keep  him  in  bondage, 
and  some  thought  that  it  might  be  possible  to  dispose  of 
any  problem  by  sending  him  out  of  the  country.  In  all  this 
period  of  agitation  and  ferment,  aside  from  the  efforts  of 
friends  in  his  behalf,  just  what  was  the  Negro  doing  to  work 
out  his  own  salvation?  If  for  the  time  being  we  can  look 
primarily  at  constructive  effort  rather  than  disabilities,  just 
what  do  we  find  that  on  his  own  account  he  was  doing  to 
rise  to  the  full  stature  of  manhood? 

Naturally  in  the  answer  to  such  a  question  we  shall  have 
to  be  concerned  with  those  people  who  had  already  attained 
unto  nominal  freedom.  We  shall  indeed  find  many  examples 
of  industrious  slaves  who,  working  in  agreement  with  their 
owners,  managed  sometimes  to  purchase  themselves  and  even 

I,  to  secure  ownership  of  their  families.  Such  cases,  while  con- 
\\  siderable  in  the  aggregate,  were  after  all  exceptional,  and  for 
the  ordinary  slave  on  the  plantation  the  outlook  was  hopeless 
enough.  In  i860  the  free  persons  formed  just  one-ninth  of 
the  total  Negro  population  in  the  country,  there  being  487,970 
of  them  to  3,953,760  slaves.  It  is  a  commonplace  to  remark 
the  progress  that  the  race  has  made  since  emancipation.  A 
study  of  the  facts,  however,  will  show  that  with  all  their  dis- 
advantages less  than  half  a  million  people  had  before  i860 
not  only  made  such  progress  as  amasses  a  surprising  total, 
but  that  they  had  already  entered  every  large  field  of  endeavor 
in  which  the  race  is  engaged  to-day. 

*  This  chapter  follows  closely  upon  Chapter  III,  Section  5,  and  is 
largely  complementary  to  Chapter  VIII. 

238 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  239 

When  in  course  of  time  the  status  of  the  Negro  in  the 
American  body  politic  became  a  live  issue,  the  possibility  and 
the  danger  of  an  imperium  in  imperio  were  perceived;  and 
Rev.  James  W.  C.  Pennington,  undoubtedly  a  leader,  said  in 
his  lectures  in  London  and  Glasgow:  "The  colored  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  have  no  destiny  separate  from  that  of 
the  nation  in  which  they  form  an  integral  part.  Our  destiny 
is  bound  up  with  that  of  America.  Her  ship  is  ours ;  her  pilot 
is  ours ;  her  storms  are  ours;  her  calms  are  ours.  If  she  breaks 
upon  any  rock,  we  break  with  her.  If  we,  born  in  America, 
can  not  live  upon  the  same  soil  upon  terms  of  equality  with 
the  descendants  of  Scotchmen,  Englishmen,  Irishmen,  French- 
men, Germans,  Hungarians,  Greeks,  and  Poles,  then  the  funda- 
mental theory  of  America  fails  and  falls  to  the  ground."  * 
While  everybody  was  practically  agreed  upon  this  fundamen- 
tal matter  of  the  relation  of  the  race  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, more  and  more  there  developed  two  lines  of  thought,  ' 
equally  honest,  as  to  the  means  by  which  the  race  itself  was 
to  attain  unto  the  highest  things  that  American  civilization  / 
had  to  offer.  The  leader  of  one  school  of  thought  was  Rich- 
ard  Allen,  founder  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal7 
Church.  When  this  man  and  his  friends  found  that  in  white  L" 
churches  they  were  not  treated  with  courtesy,  they  said,  We 
shall  have  our  own  church;  we  shall  have  our  own  bishop; 
we  shall  build  up  our  own  enterprises  in  any  line  whatsoever; 
and  even  to-day  the  church  that  Allen  founded  remains  as  the 
greatest  single  effort  of  the  race  in  organization.  The  fore- 
most representative  of  the  opposing  line  of  thought  was  un-  , 
doubtedly  Frederick  Douglass,  who  in  a  speech  in  Rochester  */ 
in  1848  said :  "I  am  well  aware  of  the  anti-Christian  preju- 
dices which  have  excluded  many  colored  persons  from  white 
churches,  and  the  consequent  necessity  for  erecting  their  own 
places  of  worship.  This  evil  I  would  charge  upon  its  origi- 
nators, and  not  the  colored  people.  But  such  a  necessity  does 
not  now  exist  to  the  extent  of  former  years.  There  are  socie- 
ties where  color  is  not  regarded  as  a  test  of  membership,  and 
such  places  I  deem  more  appropriate  for  colored  persons  than 

*  Nell :    Colored  Patriots  of  the  American  Revolution,  356. 


240    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

exclusive  or  isolated  organizations."  There  is  much  more 
difference  between  these  two  positions  than  can  be  accounted 
for  by  the  mere  lapse  of  forty  years  between  the  height  of 
the  work  of  Allen  and  that  of  Douglass.  Allen  certainly  did 
not  sanction  segregation  under  the  law,  and  no  man  worked 
harder  than  he  to  relieve  his  people  from  proscription.  Doug- 
lass moreover,  who  did  not  formally  approve  of  organiza- 
tions that  represented  any  such  distinction  as  that  of  race, 
again  and  again  presided  over  gatherings  of  Negro  men.  In 
the  last  analysis,  however,  it  was  Allen  who  was  foremost 
in  laying  the  basis  of  distinctively  Negro  enterprise,  and  Doug- 
lass who  felt  that  the  real  solution  of  any  difficulty  was  for 
j  j  the  race  to  lose  itself  as  quickly  as  possible  in  the  general  body 

politic. 
\J)  We  have  seen  that  the  Church  was  from  the  first  the  race's 
foremost  form  of  social  organization,  and  that  sometimes  in 
very  close  touch  with  it  developed  the  early  lodges  of  such 
a  body  as  the  Masons.  By  1800  emancipation  was  well  under 
way;  then  began  emigration  from  the  South  to  the  central 
West;  emigration  brought  into  being  the  Underground  Rail- 
road; and  finally  all  forces  worked  together  for  the  develop- 
ment of  Negro '  business,  the  press,  conventions,  and  other 
forms  of  activity.  It  was  natural  that  states  so  close  to  the 
border  as  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  should  be  important  in  this 
early  development. 

The  Church  continued  the  growth  that  it  had  begun  several 
decades  before.  The  A.  M.  E.  denomination  advanced  rapid- 
ly from  7  churches  and  400  members  in  18 16  to  286  churches 
and  73,000  members  by  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  Naturally 
such  a  distinctively  Negro  organization  could  make  little  prog- 
ress in  the  South  before  the  war,  but  there  were  small  con- 
gregations in  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  and  William  Paul 
Quinn  blazed  a  path  in  the  West,  going  from  Pittsburgh  to 
St.  Louis. 

In  1847  tne  Prince  Hall  Lodge  of  the  Masons  in  Massachu- 
setts, the  First  Independent  African  Grand  Lodge  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  Hiram  Grand  Lodge  of  Pennsylvania  formed 
a  National  Grand  Lodge,  and  from  one  or  another  of  these 
all  other  Grand  Lodges  among  Negroes  have  descended.     In 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  241 

1842  the  members  of  the  Philomathean  Institute  of  New  York 
and  of  the  Philadelphia  Library  Company  and  Debating  So- 
ciety applied  for  admission  to  the  International  Order  of  Odd 
Fellows.  They  were  refused  on  account  of  their  race.  There- 
upon Peter  Ogden,  a  Negro,  who  had  already  joined  the 
Grand  United  Order  of  Odd  Fellows  of  England,  secured  a 
charter  for  the  first  Negro  American  lodge,  Philomathean, 
No.  646,  of  New  York,  which  was  set  up  March  1,  1843.  & 
was  followed  within  the  next  two  years  by  lodges  in  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Albany,  and  Poughkeepsie.  The  Knights 
of  Pythias  were  not  organized  until  1864  in  Washington;  but 
the  Grand  Order  of  Galilean  Fishermen  started  on  its  career 
in  Baltimore  in  1856. 

The  benefit  societies  developed  apace.  At  first  they  were 
small  and  confined  to  a  group  of  persons  well  known  to  each 
other,  thus  being  genuinely  fraternal.  Simple  in  form,  they 
imposed  an  initiation  fee  of  hardly  less  than  $2.50  or  more 
than  $5.00,  a  monthly  fee  of  about  50  cents,  and  gave  sick 
dues  ranging  from  $1.50  to  $5.00  a  month,  with  guarantee 
of  payment  of  one's  funeral  expenses  and  subsequent  help 
to  the  widow.  By  1838  there  were  in  Philadelphia  alone  100 
such  groups  with  7,448  members.  As  bringing  together  spirits 
supposedly  congenial,  these  organizations  largely  took  the 
place  of  clubs,  and  the  meetings  were  relished  accordingly. 
Some  drifted  into  secret  societies,  and  after  the  Civil  War 
some  that  had  not  cultivated  the  idea  of  insurance  were  forced 
to  add  this  feature  to  their  work. 

In  the  sphere  of  civil  rights  the  Negroes,  in  spite  of  circum- 
stances, were  making  progress,  and  that  by  their  own  efforts 
as  well  as  those  of  their  friends  the  Abolitionists.  Their 
papers  helped  decidedly.  The  Journal  of  Freedom  (com- 
monly known  as  Freedom's  Journal),  begun  March  30,  1827, 
ran  for  three  years.  It  had  numerous  successors,  but  no  one 
of  outstanding  strength  before  the  North  Star  (later  known 
as  Frederick  Douglass'  Paper)  began  publication  in  1847, 
continuing  until  the  Civil  War.  Largely  through  the  effort 
of  Paul  Cuffe  for  the  franchise,  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  was 
generally  prominent  in  all  that  made  for  racial  prosperity. 
Here  even  by  1850  the  Negro  voters  held  the  balance  of  power 


242     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  accordingly  exerted  a  potent  influence  on  Election  day.* 
Under  date  March  6,  1840,  there  was  brought  up  for  repeal 
so  much  of  the  Massachusetts  Statutes  as  forbade  intermar- 
riage between  white  persons  and  Negroes,  mulattoes,  or  In- 
dians, as  "contrary  to  the  principles  of  Christianity  and  repub- 
licanism." The  committee  said  that  it  did  not  recommend 
a  repeal  in  the  expectation  that  the  number  of  connections, 
legal  or  illegal,  between  the  races  would  be  thereupon  in- 
creased; but  its  object  rather  was  that  wherever  such  connec- 
tions were  found  the  usual  civil  liabilities  and  obligations 
should  not  fail  to  attach  to  the  contracting  parties.  The  en- 
actment was  repealed.  In  the  same  state,  by  January,  1843, 
an  act  forbidding  discrimination  on  railroads  was  passed. 
This  grew  out  of  separate  petitions  or  remonstrances  from 
Francis  Jackson  and  Joseph  Nunn,  each  man  being  supported 
by  friends,  and  the  petitioners  based  their  request  "not  on  the 
supposition  that  the  colored  man  is  not  as  well  treated  as  his 
white  fellow-citizen,  but  on  the  broad  principle  that  the  con- 
stitution allows  no  distinction  in  public  privileges  among  the 
different  classes  of  citizens  in  this  commonwealth."  f  In 
New  York  City  an  interesting  case  arose  over  the  question  of 
public  conveyances.  When  about  1852  horse-cars  began  to 
supersede  omnibuses  on  the  streets,  the  Negro  was  excluded 
from  the  use  of  them,  and  he  continued  to  be  excluded  until 
1855,  when  a  decision  of  Judge  Rockwell  gave  him  the  right 
to  enter  them.  The  decision  was  ignored  and  the  Negro  con- 
tinued to  be  excluded  as  before.  One  Sunday  in  May,  how- 
ever, Rev.  James  W.  C.  Pennington,  after  service,  reminded 
his  hearers  of  Judge  Rockwell's  decision,  urged  them  to  stand 
up  for  their  rights,  and  especially  to  inform  any  friends  who 
might  visit  the  city  during  the  coming  anniversary  week  that 
Negroes  were  no  longer  excluded  from  the  street  cars.  He 
himself  then  boarded  a  car  on  Sixth  Avenue,  refused  to  leave 
when  requested  to  do  so,  and  was  forcibly  ejected.  He  brought 
suit  against  the  company  and  won  his  case ;  and  thus  the  Negro 
made  further  advance  toward  full  citizenship  in  New  York.  J 

*Nell,  in. 

t  Senate  document  63  of  1842. 

t  McMaster,  VIII,  74. 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  243 

Thus  was  the  Negro  developing  in  religious  organization,  in 
his  benefit  societies,  and  toward  his  rights  as  a  citizen.  When 
we  look  at  the  economic  life  upon  which  so  much  depended, 
we  find  that  rather  amazing  progress  had  been  made.  Doors 
were  so  often  closed  to  the  Negro,  competing  white  artisans 
were  so  often  openly  hostile,  and  he  himself  labored  under 
so  many  disadvantages  generally  that  it  has  often  been  thought 
that  his  economic  advance  before  i860  was  negligible;  but 
nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  for  decades  the  South  had  depended  upon  Negro 
men  for  whatever  was  to  be  done  in  all  ordinary  trades ;  some 
brick-masons,  carpenters,  and  shoemakers  had  served  a  long 
apprenticeship  and  were  thoroughly  accomplished;  and  when 
some  of  the  more  enterprising  of  these  men  removed  to  the 
North  or  West  they  took  their  training  with  them.  Very  few 
persons  became  paupers.  Certainly  many  were  destitute,  espe- 
cially those  who  had  most  recently  made  their  way  from  slav- 
ery; and  in  general  the  colored  people  cared  for  their  own 
poor.  In  1852,  of  3500  Negroes  in  Cincinnati,  200  were 
holders  of  property  who  paid  taxes  on  their  real  estate.*  In 
1855  the  Negro  per  capita  ownership  of  property  compared 
most  favorably  with  that  of  the  white  people.  Altogether  the 
Negroes  owned  $800,000  worth  of  property  in  the  city  and 
$5,000,000  worth  in  the  state.  In  the  city  there  were  among 
other  workers  three  bank  tellers,  a  landscape  artist  who  had  vis- 
ited Rome  to  complete  his  education,  and  nine  daguerreotypists, 
one  of  whom  was  the  best  in  the  entire  West.f  Of  1696 
Negroes  at  work  in  Philadelphia  in  1856,  some  of  the  more 
important  occupations  numbered  workers  as  follows :  tailors, 
dressmakers,  and  shirtmakers,  615;  barbers,  248;  shoemakers, 
66;  brickmakers,  53;  carpenters,  49;  milliners,  45;  tanners, 
24;  cake-bakers,  pastry-cooks,  or  confectioners,  22;  black- 
smiths, 22.  There  were  also  15  musicians  or  music-teachers, 
6  physicians,  and  16  school-teachers.  J  The  foremost  and  the 
most  wealthy  man  of  business  of  the  race  in  the  country  about 
1850  was  Stephen  Smith,  of  the  firm  of  Smith  and  Whipper, 

*  Clarke :    Condition  of  the  Free  Colored  People  of  the  United  States. 

t  Nell,  285. 

t  Bacon :    Statistics,  13. 


244    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  Columbia,  Pa.*  He  and  his  partner  were  lumber  mer- 
chants. Smith  was  a  man  of  wide  interests.  He  invested  his 
capital  judiciously,  engaging  in  real  estate  and  spending 
much  of  his  time  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  owned  more  than 
fifty  brick  houses,  while  Whipper,  a  relative,  attended  to  the 
business  of  the  firm.  Together  these  men  gave  employment 
to  a  large  number  of  persons.  Of  similar  quality  was  Sam- 
uel T.  Wilcox,  of  Cincinnati,  the  owner  of  a  large  grocery 
business  who  also  engaged  in  real  estate.  Henry  Boyd,  of 
Cincinnati,  was  the  proprietor  of  a  bedstead  manufactory  that 
filled  numerous  orders  from  the  South  and  West  and  that 
sometimes  employed  as  many  as  twenty-five  men,  half  of 
whom  were  white.  Sometimes  through  an  humble  occupation 
a  Negro  rose  to  competence;  thus  one  of  the  eighteen  huck- 
sters in  Cincinnati  became  the  owner  of  $20,000  worth  of 
property.  Here  and  there  several  caterers  and  tailors  became 
known  as  having  the  best  places  in  their  line  of  business  in 
their  respective  towns.  John  Julius,  of  Pittsburgh,  was  the 
proprietor  of  a  brilliant  place  known  as  Concert  Hall.  When 
President-elect  William  Henry  Harrison  in  1840  visited  the 
city  it  was  here  that  his  chief  reception  was  held.  Cordovell 
became  widely  known  as  the  name  of  the  leading  tailor  and 
originator  of  fashions  in  New  Orleans.  After  several  years 
of  success  in  business  this  merchant  removed  to  France,  where 
he  enjoyed  the  fortune  that  he  had  accumulated. 

Cordovell  was  representative  of  the  advance  of  the  people  of 
mixed  blood  in  the  South.  The  general  status  of  these  people 
was  better  in  Louisiana  than  anywhere  else  in  the  country, 
North  or  South ;  at  the  same  time  their  situation  was  such  as 
to  call  for  special  consideration.  In  Louisiana  the  "F.  M.  C." 
(Free  Man  of  Color)  formed  a  distinct  and  anomalous  class 
in  society. f  As  a  free  man  he  had  certain  rights,  and  some- 
times his  property  holdings  were  very  large. J  In  fact,  in  New 
Orleans  a  few  years  before  the  Civil  War  not  less  than  one- 

*  Delany. 
J      t  See  "The  F.  M.  C.'s  of  Louisiana,"  by  P.  F.  de  Gournay,  Lippincott's 
*  Magazine,   April,    1894;    and   "Black   Masters,"    by   Calvin    Dill    Wilson, 
North  American  Review,  November,  1905. 

t  See  Stone :  "The  Negro  in  the  South,"  in  The  South  in  the  Building 
of  the  Nation,  X,  180. 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  245 

fifth  of  the  taxable  property  was  in  the  hands  of  free  people 
of  color.  At  the  same  time  the  lot  of  these  people  was  one 
of  endless  humiliation.  Among  some  of  them  irregular  house- 
hold establishments  were  regularly  maintained  by  white  men, 
and  there  were  held  the  "quadroon  balls"  which  in  course  of 
time  gave  the  city  a  distinct  notoriety.  Above  the  people  of 
this  group,  however,  was  a  genuine  aristocracy  of  free  people 
of  color  who  had  a  long  tradition  of  freedom,  being  descended 
from  the  early  colonists,  and  whose  family  life  was  most  ex- 
emplary. In  general  they  lived  to  themselves.  In  fact,  it  was 
difficult  for  them  to  do  otherwise.  They  were  often  compelled 
to  have  papers  filled  out  by  white  guardians,  and  they  were 
not  allowed  to  be  visited  by  slaves  or  to  have  companionship 
with  them,  even  when  attending  church  or  walking  along  the 
roads.  Sometimes  free  colored  men  owned  their  women  and 
children  in  order  that  the  latter  might  escape  the  invidious 
law  against  Negroes  recently  emancipated;  or  the  situation 
was  sometimes  turned  around,  as  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  where  sev- 
eral women  owned  their  husbands.  When  the  name  of  a  free 
man  of  color  had  to  appear  on  any  formal  document — a  deed 
of  conveyance,  a  marriage-license,  a  certificate  of  birth  or 
death,  or  even  in  a  newspaper  report — the  initials  F.  M.  C. 
had  to  be  appended.  In  Louisiana  these  people  petitioned  in 
vain  for  the  suffrage,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
organized  and  splendidly  equipped  for  the  Confederacy  two 
battalions  of  five  hundred  men.  For  these  they  chose  two  dis- 
tinguished white  commanders,  and  the  governor  accepted  their 
services,  only  to  have  to  inform  them  later  that  the  Confed- 
eracy objected  to  the  enrolling  of  Negro  soldiers.  In  Charles- 
ton thirty-seven  men  in  a  remarkable  petition  also  formally 
offered  their  services  to  the  Confederacy.*  What  most  readily 
found  illustration  in  New  Orleans  or  Charleston  was  also  true 
to  some  extent  of  other  centers  of  free  people  of  color  such 
as  Mobile  and  Baltimore.  In  general  the  F.  M.  C.'s  were  in- 
dustrious and  they  almost  monopolized  one  or  two  avenues 
of  employment;  but  as  a  group  they  had  not  yet  learned  to 
place  themselves  upon  the  broad  basis  of  racial  aspiration. 

*  Note  broadside   (Charleston,  1861)    accessible  in  Special  Library  of 
Boston  Public  Library  as  Document  No.  9  in  *20th  Cab.  3.7. 


246    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  situation  of  special  groups, 
however,  it  can  readily  be  seen  that  there  were  at  least  some 
Negroes  in  the  country — a  good  many  in  the  aggregate — who 
by  i860  were  maintaining  a  high  standard  in  their  ordinary 
social  life.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  we  are  dealing  with 
a  period  when  the  general  standard  of  American  culture  was 
by  no  means  what  it  is  to-day.  "Four-fifths  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  of  i860  lived  in  the  country,  and  it  is  per- 
haps fair  to  say  that  half  of  these  dwelt  in  log  houses  of  one 
or  two  rooms.  Comforts  such  as  most  of  us  enjoy  daily  were 
as  good  as  unknown.  .  .  .  For  the  workaday  world  shirt- 
sleeves, heavy  brogan  boots  and  shoes,  and  rough  wool  hats 
were  the  rule."  *  In  Philadelphia,  a  fairly  representative  city, 
there  were  at  this  time  a  considerable  number  of  Negroes  of 
means  or  professional  standing.  These  people  were  regularly 
hospitable;  they  visited  frequently;  and  they  entertained  in 
well  furnished  parlors  with  music  and  refreshments.  In  a  day 
when  many  of  their  people  had  not  yet  learned  to  get  beyond 
showiness  in  dress,  they  were  temperate  and  self-restrained, 
they  lived  within  their  incomes,  and  they  retired  at  a  season- 
able hour.f 

In  spite  moreover  of  all  the  laws  and  disadvantages  that 
/  they  had  to  meet  the  Negroes  also  made  general  advance  in 
education.  In  the  South  efforts  were  of  course  sporadic,  but 
Negroes  received  some  teaching  through  private  or  clandestine 
sources. $  More  than  one  slave  learned  the  alphabet  while 
entertaining  the  son  of  his  master.  In  Charleston  for  a  long 
time  before  the  Civil  War  free  Negroes  could  attend  schools 
especially  designed  for  their  benefit  and  kept  by  white  people 
or  other  Negroes.  The  course  of  study  not  infrequently  em- 
braced such  subjects  as  physiology,  physics,  and  plane  geom- 
etry. After  John  Brown's  raid  the  order  went  forth  that  no 
longer  should  any  colored  person  teach  Negroes.  This  re- 
sulted in  a  white  person's  being  brought  to  sit  in  the  class- 
room, though  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  schools  were  closed 

*W.  E.  Dodd:  Expansion  and  Conflict,  Volume  3  of  "Riverside  His- 
tory of  the  United  States,"  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1915,  p.  208. 

t  Turner :    The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  140. 

t  For  interesting  examples  see  C.  G.  Woodson :  The  Education  of  the 
Negro  prior  to  1861. 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  247 

altogether.  In  the  North,  in  spite  of  all  proscription,  condi- 
tions were  somewhat  better.  As  early  as  1850  there  were  in 
the  public  "schools  in  New  York  3,393  Negro  children,  these 
sustaining  about  the  same  proportion  to  the  Negro  population 
that  white  children  sustained  to  the  total  white  population. 
Two  institutions  for  the  higher  education  of  the  Negro  were 
established  before  the  Civil  War,  Lincoln  University  in  Penn- 
sylvania (1854)  and  Wilberforce  University  in  Ohio  (1856). 
Oberlin  moreover  was  founded  in  1833.  In  1835  Professor 
Asa  Mahan,  of  Lane  Seminary,  was  offered  the  presidency. 
As  he  was  an  Abolitionist  he  said  that  he  would  accept  only  if 
Negroes  were  admitted  on  equal  terms  with  other  students. 
After  a  warm  session  of  the  trustees  the  vote  was  in  his  favor. 
Though,  before  this,  individual  Negroes  had  found  their  way 
into  Northern  institutions,  it  was  here  at  Oberlin  that  they 
first  received  a  real  welcome.  By  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
nearly  one-third  of  the  students  were  of  the  Negro  race,  and 
one  of  the  graduates,  John  M.  Langston,  was  soon  to  be  gen- 
erally prominent  in  the  affairs  of  the  country. 

It  has  been  maintained  that  in  their  emphasis  on  education 
and  on  the  highest  culture  possible  for  the  Negro  the  Aboli- 
tionists were  mere  visionaries  who  had  no  practical  knowledge 
whatever  of  the  race's  real  needs.  This  was  neither  true  nor 
just.  It  was  absolutely  necessary  first  of  all  to  establish  the 
Negro's  right  to  enter  any  field  occupied  by  any  other  man, 
and  time  has  vindicated  this  position.  Even  in  1850,  however, 
the  needs  of  the  majority  of  the  Negro  people  for  advance  in 
their  economic  life  were  not  overlooked  either  by  the  Aboli- 
tionists or  the  Negroes  themselves.  Said  Martin  V.  Delany : 
"Our  elevation  must  be  the  result  of  self-efforts,  and  work  of 
our  own  hands.  No  other  human  power  can  accomplish  it. 
.  .  .  Let  our  young  men  and  young  women  prepare  them- 
selves for  usefulness  and  business;  that  the  men  may  enter 
into  merchandise,  trading,  and  other  things  of  importance; 
the  young  women  may  become  teachers  of  various  kinds,  and 
otherwise  fill  places  of  usefulness.  Parents  must  turn  their 
attention  more  to  the  education  of  their  children.  We  mean, 
to  educate  them  for  useful  practical  business  purposes.  Edu- 
cate them  for  the  store  and  counting-house — to  do  everyday 


248     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

practical  business.  Consult  the  children's  propensities,  and 
direct  their  education  according  to  their  inclinations.  It  may- 
be that  there  is  too  great  a  desire  on  the  part  of  parents  to 
give  their  children  a  professional  education,  before  the  body 
of  the  people  are  ready  for  it.  A  people  must  be  a  business 
people  and  have  more  to  depend  upon  than  mere  help  in  peo- 
ple's houses  and  hotels,  before  they  are  either  able  to  support 
or  capable  of  properly  appreciating  the  services  of  professional 
men  among  them.  This  has  been  one  of  our  great  mistakes — 
we  have  gone  in  advance  of  ourselves.  We  have  commenced 
at  the  superstructure  of  the  building,  instead  of  the  founda- 
tion— at  the  top  instead  of  the  bottom.  We  should  first  be 
mechanics  and  common  tradesmen,  and  professions  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course  would  grow  out  of  the  wealth  made  thereby."  * 

In  professional  life  the  Negro  had  by  i860  made  a  note- 
worthy beginning.  Already  he  had  been  forced  to  give  atten- 
tion to  the  law,  though  as  yet  little  by  way  of  actual  practice 
had  been  done.  In  this  field  Robert  Morris,  Jr.,  of  Boston, 
was  probably  foremost.  William  C.  Nell,  of  Rochester  and 
Boston,  at  the  time  prominent  in  newspaper  work  and  poli- 
tics, is  now  best  remembered  for  his  study  of  the  Negro  in  the 
early  wars  of  the  country.  About  the  middle  of  the  century 
Samuel  Ringgold  Ward,  author  of  the  Autobiography  of  a 
Fugitive  Negro,  and  one  of  the  most  eloquent  men  of  the  time, 
was  for  several  years  pastor  of  a  white  Congregational  church 
in  Courtlandville,  N.  Y. ;  and  Henry  Highland  Garnett  was 
the  pastor  of  a  white  congregation  in  Troy,  and  well  known 
as  a  public-spirited  citizen  as  well.  Upon  James  W.  C.  Pen- 
nington the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  conferred  by 
Heidelberg,  and  generally  this  man  had  a  reputation  in  Eng- 
land and  on  the  continent  of  Europe  as  well  as  in  America. 
About  the  same  time  Bishops  Daniel  A.  Payne  and  William 
Paul  Quinn  were  adding  to  the  dignity  of  the  African  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church. 

Special  interest  attaches  to  the  Negro  physician.  Even  in 
colonial  times,  though  there  was  much  emphasis  on  the  control 

*  The  Condition,  Elevation,  Emigration,  and  Destiny  of  the  Colored 
People  of  the  United  States,  Politically  Considered,  Philadelphia,  1852, 
P.  45. 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  249 

of  diseases  by  roots  or  charms,  there  was  at  least  a  beginning 
in  work  genuinely  scientific.  As  early  as  1 792  a  Negro  named 
Caesar  had  gained  such  distinction  by  his  knowledge  of  cura- 
tive herbs  that  the  Assembly  of  South  Carolina  purchased  his 
freedom  and  gave  him  an  annuity.  In  the  earlier  years  of  the 
last  century  James  Derham,  of  New  Orleans,  became  the  first 
regularly  recognized  Negro  physician  of  whom  there  is  a  com- 
plete record.  Born  in  Philadelphia  in  1762,  as  a  boy  he  was 
transferred  to  a  physician  for  whom  he  learned  to  perform 
minor  duties.  Afterwards  he  was  sold  to  a  physician  in  New 
Orleans  who  used  him  as  an  assistant.  Two  or  three  years 
later  he  won  his  freedom,  he  became  familiar  with  French 
and  Spanish  as  well  as  English,  and  he  soon  commanded  gen- 
eral respect  by  his  learning  and  skill.  About  the  middle  of 
the  century,  in  New  York,  James  McCune  Smith,  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  was  prominent.  He  was  the 
author  of  several  scientific  papers,  a  man  of  wide  interests, 
and  universally  held  in  high  esteem.  "The  first  real  impetus 
to  bring  Negroes  in  considerable  numbers  into  the  professional 
world  came  from  the  American  Colonization  Society,  which 
in  the  early  years  flourished  in  the  South  as  well  as  the  North 
.  .  .  and  undertook  to  prepare  professional  leaders  of  their 
race  for  the  Liberian  colony.  'To  execute  this  scheme,  leaders 
of  the  colonization  movement  endeavored  to  educate  Negroes 
in  mechanic  arts,  agriculture,  science,  and  Biblical  literature. 
Especially  bright  or  promising  youths  were  to  be  given  special 
training  as  catechists,  teachers,  preachers,  and  physicians. 
Not  much  was  said  about  what  they  were  doing,  but  now  and 
then  appeared  notices  of  Negroes  who  had  been  prepared  pri- 
vately in  the  South  or  publicly  in  the  North  for  service  in 
Liberia.  Dr.  William  Taylor  and  Dr.  Fleet  were  thus  edu- 
cated in  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  the  same  way  John  V. 
De  Grasse,  of  New  York,  and  Thomas  J.  White,  of  Brooklyn, 
were  allowed  to  complete  the  medical  course  at  Bowdoin  in 
1849.  In  1854  Dr.  De  Grasse  was  admitted  as  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society.'  "  *     Martin  V.  Delany, 

*  Kelly  Miller :  "The  Background  of  the  Negro  Physician,"  Journal 
of  Negro  History,  April,  1916,  quoting  in  part  Woodson:  The  Education 
of  the  Negro  prior  to  1861. 


250     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

more  than  once  referred  to  in  these  pages,  after  being  refused 
admission  at  a  number  of  institutions,  was  admitted  to  the 
medical  school  at  Harvard.  He  became  distinguished  for  his 
work  in  a  cholera  epidemic  in  Pittsburgh  in  1854.  It  was  of 
course  not  until  after  the  Civil  War  that  medical  departments 
were  established  in  connection  with  some  of  the  new  higher 
institutions  of  learning  for  Negro  students. 

Before  i860  a  situation  that  arose  more  than  once  took  from 
Negroes  the  real  credit  for  inventions.  If  a  slave  made  an 
invention  he  was  not  permitted  to  take  out  a  patent,  for  no 
slave  could  make  a  contract.  At  the  same  time  the  slave's 
master  could  not  take  out  a  patent  for  him,  for  the  Govern- 
ment would  not  recognize  the  slave  as  having  the  legal  right 
to  make  the  assignment  to  his  master.  It  is  certain  that  Ne- 
groes, who  did  most  of  the  mechanical  work  in  the  South  be- 
fore the  Civil  War,  made  more  than  one  suggestion  for  the 
improvement  of  machinery.  We  have  already  referred  to  the 
strong  claim  put  forth  by  a  member  of  the  race  for  the  real 
credit  of  the  cotton-gin.  The  honor  of  being  the  first  Negro 
to  be  granted  a  patent  belongs  to  Henry  Blair,  of  Maryland, 
who  in  1834  received  official  protection  for  a  corn  harvester. 

Throughout  the  century  there  were  numerous  attempts  at 
poetical  composition,  and  several  booklets  were  published. 
Perhaps  the  most  promising  was  George  Horton's  The 
Hope  of  Liberty,  which  appeared  in  1829.  Unfortunately, 
Horton  could  not  get  the  encouragement  that  he  needed  and 
in  course  of  time  settled  down  to  the  life  of  a  janitor  at  the 
University  of  North  Carolina.*  Six  years  before  the  war 
Frances  Ellen  Watkins  (later  Mrs.  Harper)  struck  the  popular 
note  by  readings  from  her  Miscellaneous  Poems,  which  ran 
through  several  editions.  About  the  same  time  William  Wells 
Brown  was  prominent,  though  he  also  worked  for  several  years 
after  the  war.  He  was  a  man  of  decided  talent  and  had  trav- 
eled considerably.  He  wrote  several  books  dealing  with  Negro 
history  and  biography;  and  he  also  treated  racial  subjects  in 
a  novel,  Clotel,  and  in  a  drama,  The  Escape.  The  latter 
suffers   from  an  excess  of  moralizing,  but  several  times  it 

*  See  "George  Moses  Horton :  Slave  Poet,"  by  Stephen  B.  Weeks, 
Southern  Workman,  October,  1914. 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS,  1820-1860  251 

flashes  out  with  the  quality  of  genuine  drama,  especially  when 
it  deals  with  the  jealousy  of  a  mistress  for  a  favorite  slave  and 
the  escape  of  the  latter  with  her  husband.  In  1841  the  first 
Negro  magazine  began  to  appear,  this  being  issued  by  the 
A.  M.  E.  Church.  There  were  numerous  autobiographies, 
that  of  Frederick  Douglass,  first  appearing  in  1845,  running 
through  edition  after  edition.  On  the  stage  there  was  the 
astonishing  success  of  Ira  Aldridge,  a  tragedian  who  in  his 
earlier  years  went  to  Europe,  where  he  had  the  advantage  of 
association  with  Edmund  Kean.  About  1857  he  was  com- 
monly regarded  as  one  of  the  two  or  three  greatest  actors  in 
the  world.  He  became  a  member  of  several  of  the  continental 
academies  of  arts  and  science,  and  received  many  decorations 
of  crosses  and  medals,  the  Emperors  of  Russia  and  Austria  and 
the  King  of  Prussia  being  among  those  who  honored  him.  In 
the  great  field  of  music  there  was  much  excellent  work  both 
in  composition  and  in  the  performance  on  different  instru- 
ments. Among  the  free  people  of  color  in  Louisiana  there 
were  several  distinguished  musicians,  some  of  whom  removed 
to  Europe  for  the  sake  of  greater  freedom.*  The  highest  indi- 
vidual achievement  was  that  of  Elizabeth  Taylor  Greenfield, 
of  Philadelphia.  This  singer  was  of  the  very  first  rank.  Her 
voice  was  of  remarkable  sweetness  and  had  a  compass  of 
twenty-seven  notes.  She  sang  before  many  distinguished 
audiences  in  both  Europe  and  America  and  was  frequently 
compared  with  Jenny  Lind,  than  at  the  height  of  her  fame. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  honorable  achievement  on  the  part  of  \ 
Negroes  and  general  advance  in  social  welfare  by  no  means 
began  with  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  In  i860  eight- 
ninths  of  the  members  of  the  race  were  still  slaves,  but  in  the 
face  of  every  possible  handicap  the  one-ninth  that  was  free 
had  entered  practically  every  great  field  of  human  endeavor. 
Many  were  respected  citizens  in  their  communities,  and  a  few 
had  even  laid  the  foundations  of  wealth.  While  there  was 
as  yet  no  book  of  unquestioned  genius  or  scholarship,  there 
was  considerable  intellectual  activity,  and  only  time  and  a  little 
more  freedom  from  economic  pressure  were  needed  for  the 
production  of  works  of  the  first  order  of  merit. 

*  See  Washington :  The  Story  of  the  Negro,  II,  276-7. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  CIVIL  WAR  AND  EMANCIPATION 


At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  two  great  questions  af- 
fecting the  Negro  overshadowed  all  others — his  freedom  and 
his  employment  as  a  soldier.  The  North  as  a  whole  had  no 
special  enthusiasm  about  the  Negro  and  responded  only  to 
Lincoln's  call  to  the  duty  of  saving  the  Union.  Among  both 
officers  and  men  moreover  there  was  great  prejudice  against 
the  use  of  the  Negro  as  a  soldier,  the  feeling  being  that  he  was 
disqualified  by  slavery  and  ignorance.  Privates  objected  to 
meeting  black  men  on  the  same  footing  as  themselves  and  also 
felt  that  the  arming  of  slaves  to  fight  for  their  former  masters' 
would  increase  the  bitterness  of  the  conflict.  If  many  men 
in  the  North  felt  thus,  the  South  was  furious  at  the  thought 
of  the  Negro  as  a  possible  opponent  in  arms. 

The  human  problem,  however,  was  not  long  in  presenting 
itself  and  forcing  attention.  As  soon  as  the  Northern  soldiers 
appeared  in  the  South,  thousands  of  Negroes — men,  women, 
and  children — flocked  to  their  camps,  feeling  only  that  they 
were  going  to  their  friends.  In  May,  1861,  while  in  command 
at  Fortress  Monroe,  Major-General  Benjamin  F.  Butler  came 
into  national  prominence  by  his  policy  of  putting  to  work  the 
men  who  came  within  his  lines  and  justifying  their  retention 
on  the  ground  that,  being  of  service  to  the  enemy  for  purposes 
of  war,  they  were  like  guns,  powder,  etc.,  ''contraband  of 
war,"  and  could  not  be  reclaimed.  On  August  30th  of  this 
same  year  Major-General  John  C.  Fremont,  in  command  in 
Missouri,  placed  the  state  under  martial  law  and  declared  the 
slaves  there  emancipated.  The  administration  was  embar- 
rassed, Fremont's  order  was  annulled,  and  he  was  relieved 
of  his  command.  On  May  9,  1862,  Major-General  David 
Hunter,  in  charge  of  the  Department  of  the  South  (South 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  AND   EMANCIPATION        253 

Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida)  issued  his  famous  order  free- 
ing the  slaves  in  his  department,  and  thus  brought  to  general 
attention  the  matter  of  the  employment  of  Negro  soldiers  in 
the  Union  armies.  The  Confederate  government  outlawed 
Hunter,  Lincoln  annulled  his  order,  and  the  grace  of  the  nation 
was  again  saved;  but  in  the  meantime  a  new  situation  had 
arisen.  While  Brigadier-General  John  W.  Phelps  was  tak- 
ing part  in  the  expedition  against  New  Orleans,  a  large  sugar- 
planter  near  the  city,  disgusted  with  Federal  interference  with 
affairs  on  his  plantation,  drove  all  his  slaves  away,  telling  them 
to  go  to  their  friends,  the  Yankees.  The  Negroes  came  to 
Phelps  in  great  numbers,  and  for  the  sake  of  discipline  he 
attempted  to  organize  them  into  troops.  Accordingly  he,  too, 
was  outlawed  by  the  Confederates,  and  his  act  was  disavowed 
by  the  Union,  that  was  not  ready  to  take  this  step. 

Meanwhile  President  Lincoln  was  debating  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation.  Pressure  from  radical  anti-slavery  sources 
was  constantly  being  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  and  Horace 
Greeley  in  his  famous  editorial,  "The  Prayer  of  Twenty  Mil- 
lions," was  only  one  of  those  who  criticized  what  seemed  to 
be  his  lack  of  strength  in  handling  the  situation.  After  Mc- 
Clellan's  unsuccessful  campaign  against  Richmond,  however, 
he  felt  that  the  freedom  of  the  slaves  was  a  military  and  moral 
necessity  for  its  effects  upon  both  the  North  and  the  South ; 
and  Lee's  defeat  at  Antietam,  September  17,  1862,  furnished 
the  opportunity  for  which  he  had  been  waiting.  Accordingly 
on  September  22nd  he  issued  a  preliminary  declaration  giving 
notice  that  on  January  1,  1865,  he  would  free  all  slaves  in  the 
states  still  in  rebellion,  and  asserting  as  before  that  the  object 
of  the  war  was  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

The  Proclamation  as  finally  issued  January  1st  is  one  of 
the  most  important  public  documents  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States,  ranking  only  below  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  Constitution  itself.    It  full  text  is  as  follows : 


Whereas,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  a  proclamation 
was  issued  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  containing  among 
other  things  the  following,  to-wit : 


254    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within 
any  state  or  designated  part  of  a  state,  the  people  whereof  shall  then 
be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thencefor- 
ward, and  forever  free ;  and  the  executive  government  of  the  United 
States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recog- 
nize and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act 
or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they 
may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January  aforesaid,  by 
proclamation,  designate  the  states  and  parts  of  states,  if  any,  in  which 
the  people  thereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States ; 
and  the  fact  that  any  state,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day 
be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by 
members  chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qual- 
ified voters  of  such  state  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence 
of  strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  state,  and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  in  time  of  actual  armed 
rebellion  against  the  authority  and  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebellion, 
do  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so 
to  do,  publicly  proclaimed  for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days 
from  the  date  first  above  mentioned,  order  and  designate  as  the  states 
and  parts  of  states  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively  are  this 
day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the  following  to-wit : 

Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of  St.  Bernard, 
Plaquemine,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James,  Ascension, 
Assumption,  Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  Ste.  Marie,  St.  Martin,  and 
Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New  Orleans),  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia  (ex- 
cept the  forty-eight  counties  designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also 
the  counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomac,  Northampton,  Elizabeth  City, 
York,  Princess  Anne,  and  Norfolk,  including  the  cities  of  Norfolk 
and  Portsmouth),  and  which  excepted  parts  are,  for  the  present,  left 
precisely  as  if  this  proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  I  do 
order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  said  desig- 
nated states  and  parts  of  states  are  and  henceforward  shall  be  free, 
and  that  the  executive  government  of  the  United  States,  including 
the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  main- 
tain the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to  be   free  to 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  AND   EMANCIPATION        255 

abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary  self-defense;  and  I 
recommend  to  them  that,  in  all  cases  when  allowed,  they  labor  faith- 
fully for  reasonable  wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such  persons,  of  suit- 
able condition,  will  be  received  into  the  armed  service  of  the  United 
States  to  garrison  forts,  positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to 
man  vessels  of  all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  war- 
ranted by  the  Constitution  upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  con- 
siderate judgment  of  mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty 
God. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name,  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of 
the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 

By  the  President, 

Abraham  Lincoln. 

William  H.  Seward, 

Secretary  of  State. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Proclamation  was  merely  a 
war  measure  resting  on  the  constitutional  power  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Its  effects  on  the  legal  status  of  the  slaves  gave  rise 
to  much  discussion ;  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  it  did  not  apply 
to  what  is  now  West  Virginia,  to  seven  counties  in  Virginia, 
and  to  thirteen  parishes  in  Louisiana,  which  districts  had  al- 
ready come  under  Federal  jurisdiction.  All  questions  raised 
by  the  measure,  however,  were  finally  settled  by  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  free- 
dom actually  followed  the  progress  of  the  Union  arms  from 
1863  to  1865. 

Meanwhile  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  Negroes 
were  used  by  the  Confederates  in  making  redoubts  and  in  doing 
other  rough  work,  and  even  before  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation there  were  many  Northern  officers  who  said  that  defi- 
nite enlistment  was  advisable.  They  felt  that  such  a  course 
would  help  to  destroy  slavery  and  that  as  the  Negroes  had 
so  much  at  stake  they  should  have  some  share  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  rebellion.  They  said  also  that  the  men  would 
be  proud  to  wear  the  national  uniform.  Individuals  more- 
over as  officers'  servants  saw  much  of  fighting  and  won  con- 


256    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

fidence  in  their  ability;  and  as  the  war  advanced  and  more 
and  more  men  were  killed  the  conviction  grew  that  a  Negro 
could  stop  a  bullet  as  well  as  a  white  man  and  that  in  any  case 
the  use  of  Negroes  for  fatigue  work  would  release  numbers  of 
other  men  for  the  actual  fighting. 

At  last — after  a  great  many  men  had  been  killed  and  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  had  changed  the  status  of  the 
Negro — enlistment  was  decided  on.  The  policy  was  that  Ne- 
groes might  be  non-commissioned  men  while  white  men  who 
had  seen  service  would  be  field  and  line  officers.  In  general 
it  was  expected  that  only  those  who  had  kindly  feeling  to- 
ward the  Negro  would  be  used  as  officers,  but  in  the  pressure 
of  military  routine  this  distinction  was  not  always  observed. 
Opinion  for  the  race  gained  force  after  the  Draft  Riot  in  New 
York  (July,  1863),  when  Negroes  in  the  city  were  persecuted 
by  the  opponents  of  conscription.  Soon  a  distinct  bureau  was 
established  in  Washington  for  the  recording  of  all  matters 
pertaining  to  Negro  troops,  a  board  was  organized  for  the 
examination  of  candidates,  and  recruiting  stations  were  set 
vip  in  Maryland,  Missouri,  and  Tennessee.  The  Confederates 
were  indignant  at  the  thought  of  having  to  meet  black  men 
on  equal  footing,  and  refused  to  exchange  Negro  soldiers  for 
white  men.  How  such  action  was  met  by  Stanton,  Secretary 
of  War,  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  when  he  learned  that 
three  Negro  prisoners  had  been  placed  in  close  confinement, 
he  ordered  three  South  Carolina  men  to  be  treated  likewise, 
and  the  Confederate  leaders  to  be  informed  of  his  policy. 

The  economic  advantage  of  enlistment  was  apparent.  It 
gave  work  to  187,000  men  who  had  been  cast  adrift  by  the 
war  and  who  had  found  no  place  of  independent  labor.  It  gave 
them  food,  clothing,  wages,  and  protection,  but  most  of  all  the 
feeling  of  self-respect  that  comes  from  profitable  employ- 
ment. To  the  men  themselves  the  year  of  jubilee  had  come. 
At  one  great  step  they  had  crossed  the  gulf  that  separates 
chattels  from  men  and  they  now  had  a  chance  to  vindicate  their 
manhood.  A  common  poster  of  the  day  represented  a  Negro 
soldier  bearing  the  flag,  the  shackles  of  a  slave  being  broken, 
a  young  Negro  boy  reading  a  newspaper,  and  several  children 
going  into  a  public  school.     Over  all  were  the  words:  "All 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  AND  EMANCIPATION        257 

Slaves  were  made  Freemen  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  January  1st,  1863.  Come,  then,  able- 
bodied  Colored  Men,  to  the  nearest  United  States  Camp,  and 
fight  for  the  Stars  and  Stripes." 

To  the  credit  of  the  men  be  it  said  that  in  their  new  position 
they  acted  with  dignity  and  sobriety.  When  they  picketed 
lines  through  which  Southern  citizens  passed,  they  acted  with 
courtesy  at  the  same  time  that  they  did  their  duty.  They 
captured  Southern  men  without  insulting  them,  and  by  their 
own  self-respect  won  the  respect  of  others.  Meanwhile  their 
brothers  in  the  South  went  about  the  day's  work,  caring  for  the 
widow  and  the  orphan;  and  a  nation  that  still  lynches  the 
Negro  has  to  remember  that  in  all  these  troublous  years  deeds 
of  violence  against  white  women  and  girls  were  absolutely 
unknown. 

Throughout  the  country  the  behavior  of  the  black  men 
under  fire  was  watched  with  the  most  intense  interest.  More 
and  more  in  the  baptism  of  blood  they  justified  the  faith  for 
which  their  friends  had  fought  for  years.  At  Port  Hudson, 
Fort  Wagner,  Fort  Pillow,  and  Petersburg  their  courage  was 
most  distinguished.  Said  the  New  York  Times  of  the  battle 
at  Port  Hudson  (1863):  "General  Dwight,  at  least,  must 
have  had  the  idea  not  only  that  they  (the  Negro  troops)  were 
men,  but  something  more  than  men,  from  the  terrific  test  to 
which  he  put  their  valor.  .  .  .  Their  colors  are  torn  to  pieces 
by  shot,  and  literally  bespattered  by  blood  and  brains."  This 
was  the  occasion  on  which  Color-Sergeant  Anselmas  Plan- 
ciancois  said  before  a  shell  blew  off  his  head,  "Colonel,  I  will 
bring  back  these  colors  to  you  on  honor,  or  report  to  God  the 
reason  why."  On  June  6  the  Negroes  again  distinguished 
themselves  and  won  friends  by  their  bravery  at  Milliken's 
Bend.  The  Fifty- fourth  Massachusetts,  commanded  by  Robert 
Gould  Shaw,  was  conspicuous  in  the  attempt  to  take  Fort 
Wagner,  on  Morris  Island  near  Charleston,  July  18,  1863. 
The  regiment  had  marched  two  days  and  two  nights  through 
swamps  and  drenching  rains  in  order  to  be  in  time  for  the 
assault.  In  the  engagement  nearly  all  the  officers  of  the  regi- 
ment were  killed,  among  them  Colonel  Shaw.  The  pictur- 
esque deed  was  that  of   Sergeant  William  H.   Carney,  who 


258     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

seized  the  regiment's  colors  from  the  hands  of  a  falling  com- 
rade, planted  the  flag  on  the  works,  and  said  when  borne 
bleeding  and  mangled  from  the  field,  "Boys,  the  old  flag  never 
touched  the  ground."  Fort  Pillow,  a  position  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, about  fifty  miles  above  Memphis,  was  garrisoned  by 
557  men,  262  of  whom  were  Negroes,  when  it  was  attacked 
April  13,  1864.  The  fort  was  finally  taken  by  the  Confed- 
erates, but  the  feature  of  the  engagement  was  the  stubborn 
resistance  offered  by  the  Union  troops  in  the  face  of  great 
odds.  In  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  in  the  Department  of 
the  South,  the  Negro  had  now  done  excellent  work  as  a  sol- 
dier. In  the  spring  of  1864  he  made  his  appearance  in  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  In  July  there  was  around  Richmond 
and  Petersburg  considerable  skirmishing  between  the  Federal 
and  the  Confederate  forces.  Burnside,  commanding  a  corps 
composed  partly  of  Negroes,  dug  under  a  Confederate  fort  a 
trench  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  long.  This  was  filled  with 
explosives,  and  on  July  30  the  match  was  applied  and  the 
famous  crater  formed.  Just  before  the  explosion  the  Negroes 
had  figured  in  a  gallant  charge  on  the  Confederates.  The  plan 
was  to  follow  the  eruption  by  a  still  more  formidable  assault, 
in  which  Burnside  wanted  to  give  his  Negro  troops  the  lead. 
A  dispute  about  this  and  a  settlement  by  lot  resulted  in  the 
awarding  of  precedence  to  a  New  Hampshire  regiment.  Said 
General  Grant  later  of  the  whole  unfortunate  episode:  "Gen- 
eral Burnside  wanted  to  put  his  colored  division  in  front;  I 
believe  if  he  had  done  so  it  would  have  been  a  success."  After 
the  men  of  a  Negro  regiment  had  charged  and  taken  a  battery 
at  Decatur,  Ala.,  in  October,  1864,  and  shown  exceptional 
gallantry  under  fire,  they  received  an  ovation  from  their  white 
comrades  "who  by  thousands  sprang  upon  the  parapets  and 
cheered  the  regiment  as  it  reentered  the  lines."  * 

When  all  was  over  there  was  in  the  North  a  spontaneous 
recognition  of  the  right  of  such  men  to  honorable  and  generous 

*  General  Thomas  J.  Morgan:  "The  Negroes  in  the  Civil  War,"  in 
the  Baptist  Home  Mission  Monthly,  quoted  in  Liberia,  Bulletin  12,  Feb- 
ruary, 1898.  General  Morgan  in  October,  1863,  became  a  major  in  the 
Fourteenth  United  States  Colored  Infantry.  He  organized  the  regiment 
and  became  its  colonel.  He  also  organized  the  Forty-second  and  Forty- 
fourth  regiments  of  colored  infantry. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  AND  EMANCIPATION        259 

treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  nation,  and  in  Congress  there  was 
the  feeling  that  if  the  South  could  come  back  to  the  Union 
with  its  autonomy  unimpaired,  certainly  the  Negro  soldier 
should  have  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Before  the  war  closedpy 
however,  there  was  held  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  a  convention  of 
Negro  men  that  threw  interesting  light  on  the  problems  and 
the  feeling  of  the  period.*  At  this  gathering  John  Mercer 
Langston  was  temporary  chairman,  Frederick  Douglass,  presi- 
dent, and  Henry  Highland  Garnett,  of  Washington;  James 
W.  C.  Pennington,  of  New  York;  George  L.  Ruffin,  of  Bos- 
ton, and  Ebenezer  D.  Bassett,  of  Philadelphia,  were  among  the 
more  prominent  delegates.  There  was  at  the  meeting  a  fear 
that  some  of  the  things  that  seemed  to  have  been  gained  by  the 
war  might  not  actually  be  realized;  and  as  Congress  had  not 
yet  altered  the  Constitution  so*  as  to  abolish  slavery,  grave 
question  was  raised  by  a  recent  speech  in  which  no  less  a  man 
than  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  had  said :  "When  the  insur- 
gents shall  have  abandoned  their  armies  and  laid  down  their 
arms,  the  war  will  instantly  cease;  and  all  the  war  measures 
then  existing,  including  those  which  affect  slavery,  will  cease 
also."  The  convention  thanked  the  President  and  the  Thirty- 
Seventh  Congress  for  revoking  a  prohibitory  law  in  regard 
to  the  carrying  of  mails  by  Negroes,  for  abolishing  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  for  recognizing  Hayti  and  Liberia, 
and  for  the  military  order  retaliating  for  the  unmilitary  treat- 
ment accorded  Negro  soldiers  by  the  Confederate  officers; 
and  especially  it  thanked  Senator  Sumner  "for  his  noble  ef- 
forts to  cleanse  the  statute-books  of  the  nation  from  every 
stain  of  inequality  against  colored  men,"  and  General  Butler 
for  the  stand  he  had  taken  early  in  the  war.  At  the  same  time 
it  resolved  to  send  a  petition  to  Congress  to  ask  that  the  rights 
of  the  country's  Negro  patriots  in  the  field  be  respected,  and 
that  the  Government  cease  to  set  an  example  to  those  in  arms 
against  it  by  making  invidious  distinctions,  based  upon  color, 
as  to  pay,  labor,  and  promotion.     It  begged  especially  to  be 

*  See  Proceedings  of  the  National  Convention  of  Colored  Men,  held 

in  the  city  of   Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  October  4,  5,  6,  and  7,   1864,  with  the 

Bill  of  Wrongs  and  Rights,  and  the  Address  to  the  American  People. 
Boston,  1864. 


2<5o    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

saved  from  supposed  friends :  "When  the  Anti-Slavery  Stand- 
ard, representing  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  denies 
that  the  society  asks  for  the  enfranchisement  of  colored  men, 
and  the  Liberator  apologizes  for  excluding  the  colored  men  of 
Louisiana  from  the  ballot-box,  they  injure  us  more  vitally  than 
all  the  ribald  jests  of  the  whole  pro-slavery  press."  Finally 
the  convention  insisted  that  any  such  things  as  the  right  to  own 
real  estate,  to  testify  in  courts  of  law,  and  to  sue  and  be  sued, 
were  mere  privileges  so  long  as  general  political  liberty  was 
withheld,  and  asked  frankly  not  only  for  the  formal  and  com- 
plete abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  but  also  for  the 
elective  franchise  in  all  the  states  then  in  the  Union  and  in  all 
that  might  come  into  the  Union  thereafter.  On  the  whole  this 
representative  gathering  showed  a  very  clear  conception  of  the 
problems  facing  the  Negro  and  the  country  in  1864.  Its  ref- 
erence to  well-known  anti-slavery  publications  shows  not  only 
the  increasing  race  consciousness  that  came  through  this  as 
through  all  other  wars  in  which  the  country  has  engaged,  but 
also  the  great  drift  toward  conservatism  that  had  taken  place 
in  the  North  within  thirty  years. 

Whatever  might  be  the  questions  of  the  moment,  however, 
about  the  supreme  blessing  of  freedom  there  could  at  last  be 
no  doubt.  It  had  been  long  delayed  and  had  finally  come  mere- 
ly as  an  incident  to  the  war;  nevertheless  a  whole  race  of  people 
had  passed  from  death  unto  life.  Then,  as  before  and  since, 
they  found  a  parallel  for  their  experiences  in  the  story  of  the 
Jews  in  the  Old  Testament.  They,  too,  had  sojourned  in  Egypt 
and  crossed  the  Red  Sea.  What  they  could  not  then  see,  or 
only  dimly  realize,  was  that  they  needed  faith — faith  in  God 
and  faith  in  themselves — for  the  forty  years  in  the  wilderness. 
They  did  not  yet  fully  know  that  He  who  guided  the  children 
of  Israel  and  drove  out  before  them  the  Amorite  and  the  Hit- 
tite,  would  bring  them  also  to  the  Promised  Land. 

To  those  who  led  the  Negro  in  these  wonderful  years — to 
Robert  Gould  Shaw,  the  young  colonel  of  the  Fifty-Fourth 
Massachusetts,  who  died  leading  his  men  at  Fort  Wagner ;  to 
Norwood  Penrose  Hallowell,  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Fifty- 
Fourth  and  then  colonel  of  the  Fifty-Fifth;  to  his  brother, 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  AND   EMANCIPATION        261 

Edward  N.  Hallowell,  who  succeeded  Shaw  when  he  fell ;  and 
to  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  who  commanded  the  first 
regiment  of  freed  slaves — no  ordinary  eulogy  can  apply.  Their 
names  are  written  in  letters  of  flame  and  their  deeds  live  after 
them.  On  the  Shaw  Monument  in  Boston  are  written  these 
words : 

The  White  Officers 

Taking  Life  and  Honor  in  their  Hands — Cast  their  lot 
with  Men  of  a  Despised  Race  Unproved  in  War — and 
Risked  Death  as  Inciters  of  a  Servile  Insurrection  if 
Taken  Prisoners,  Besides  Encountering  all  the  Common 
Perils  of  Camp,  March,  and  Battle. 

The  Black  Rank  and  File 

Volunteered  when  Disaster  Clouded  the  Union  Cause 
— Served  without  Pay  for  Eighteen  Months  till  Given 
that  of  White  Troops — Faced  Threatened  Enslavement 
if  Captured — Were  Brave  in  Action — Patient  under 
Dangerous  and  Heavy  Labors  and  Cheerful  amid  Hard- 
ships and  Privations. 

Together 

They  Gave  to  the  Nation  Undying  Proof  that  Amer- 
icans of  African  Descent  Possess  the  Pride,  Courage,  and 
Devotion  of  the  Patriot  Soldier — One  Hundred  and 
Eighty  Thousand  Such  Americans  Enlisted  under  the 
Union  Flag  in  MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   ERA    OF    ENFRANCHISEMENT 

I.     The  Problem 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  United  States  found  it- 
self face  to  face  with  one  of  the  gravest  social  problems  of 
modern  times.  More  and  more  it  became  apparent  that  it  was 
not  only  the  technical  question  of  the  restoration  of  the  states  to 
the  Union  that  had  to  be  considered,  but  the  whole  adjustment 
for  the  future  of  the  lives  of  three  and  a  half  million  Negroes 
and  five  and  a  half  million  white  people  in  the  South.  In  its 
final  analysis  the  question  was  one  of  race,  and  to  add  to  the 
difficulties  of  this  problem  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  there 
should  have  been  actually  upon  the  scene  politicians  and  specu- 
lators who  sought  to  capitalize  for  their  own  gain  the  public 
distress. 

The  South  was  thoroughly  demoralized,  and  the  women  who 
had  borne  the  burden  of  the  war  at  home  were  especially  bit- 
ter. Slave  property  to  the  amount  of  two  billions  of  dollars 
had  been  swept  away;  several  of  the  chief  cities  had  suffered 
bombardment;  the  railroads  had  largely  run  down;  and  the 
confiscation  of  property  was  such  as  to  lead  to  the  indemnifica- 
tion of  thousands  of  claimants  afterwards.  The  Negro  was 
not  yet  settled  in  new  places  of  abode,  and  his  death  rate  was 
appalling.  Throughout  the  first  winter  after  the  war  the  whole 
South  was  on  the  verge  of  starvation. 

Here  undoubtedly  was  a  difficult  situation — one  calling  for 
the  highest  quality  of  statesmanship,  and  of  sportsmanship  on 
the  part  of  the  vanquished.  Many  Negroes,  freed  from  the 
tradition  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  slavery,  took  a 
holiday ;  some  resolved  not  to  work  any  more  as  long  as  they 
lived,  and  some  even  appropriated  to  their  own  use  the  produce 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  263 

Df  their  neighbors.  If  they  remained  on  the  old  plantations, 
they  feared  that  they  might  still  be  considered  slaves;  on  the 
other  hand,  if  they  took  to  the  high  road,  they  might  be  con- 
sidered vagrants.  If  one  returned  from  a  Federal  camp  to 
claim  his  wife  and  children,  he  might  be  driven  away.  "Free- 
dom cried  out,"  and  undoubtedly  some  individuals  did  foolish 
things ;  but  serious  crime  was  noticeably  absent.  On  the  whole 
the  race  bore  the  blessing  of  emancipation  with  remarkable 
good  sense  and  temper.  Returning  soldiers  paraded,  there  were 
some  meetings  and  processions,  sometimes  a  little  regalia — and 
even  a  little  noise ;  then  everybody  went  home.  Unfortunately 
even  so  much  the  white  South  regarded  as  insolence. 

The  example  of  how  the  South  might  have  met  the  situa- 
tion was  afforded  by  no  less  a  man  than  Robert  E.  Lee,  about 
whose  unselfishness  and  standard  of  conduct  as  a  gentleman 
there  could  be  no  question.  One  day  in  Richmond  a  Negro 
from  the  street,  intent  on  asserting  his  rights,  entered  a  repre- 
sentative church,  pushed  his  way  to  the  communion  altar  and 
knelt.  The  congregation  paused,  and  all  fully  realized  the  fac- 
tors that  entered  into  the  situation.  Then  General  Lee  rose 
and  knelt  beside  the  Negro ;  the  congregation  did  likewise,  and 
the  tension  was  over.  Furthermore,  every  one  went  home  spir- 
itually uplifted. 

Could  the  handling  of  this  incident  have  been  multipled  a 
thousand  times — could  men  have  realized  that  mere  accidents 
are  fleeting  but  that  principles  are  eternal — both  races  would 
have  been  spared  years  of  agony,  and  our  Southland  would 
be  a  far  different  place  to-day.  The  Negro  was  at  the  heart 
of  the  problem,  but  to  that  problem  the  South  undoubtedly 
held  the  key.  Of  course  the  cry  of  "social  equality"  might 
have  been  raised;  anything  might  have  been  said  to  keep  the 
right  thing  from  being  done.  In  this  instance,  as  in  many 
others,  the  final  question  was  not  what  somebody  else  did,  but 
how  one  himself  could  act  most  nobly. 

Unfortunately  Lee's  method  of  approach  was  not  to  prevail. 
Passion  and  prejudice  and  demagoguery  were  to  have  their  day, 
and  conservative  and  broadly  patriotic  men  were  to  be  made 


264     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

to  follow  leaders  whom  they  could  not  possibly  approve.  Sixty 
years  afterwards  we  still  suffer  from  the  KuKlux  solution  of 
the  problem. 

2.     Meeting  the  Problem 

The  story  of  reconstruction  has  been  many  times  told,  and 
it  is  not  our  intention  to  tell  that  story  again.  We  must  con- 
tent ourselves  by  touching  upon  some  of  the  salient  points  in 
the  discussion. 

Even  before  the  close  of  the  war  the  National  Government 
had  undertaken  to  handle  officially  the  thousands  of  Negroes 
who  had  crowded  to  the  Federal  lines  and  not  less  than  a  mil- 
lion of  whom  were  in  the  spring  of  1865  dependent  upon 
the  National  Government  for  support.  The  Bureau  of  Refugee 
Freedmen  and  Abandoned  Lands,  created  in  connection  with 
the  War  Department  by  an  act  of  March  3,  1865,  was  to  re- 
main in  existence  throughout  the  war  and  for  one  year  there- 
after. Its  powers  were  enlarged  July  16,  1866,  and  its  chief 
work  did  not  end  until  January  1,  1869,  its  educational  work 
continuing  for  a  year  and  a  half  longer.  The  Freedmen's 
Bureau  was  to  have  "the  supervision  and  management  of  all 
abandoned  lands,  and  the  control  of  all  subjects  relating  to 
refugees  and  freedmen."  Of  special  importance  was  the  pro- 
vision in  the  creating  act  that  gave  the  freedmen  to  under- 
stand that  each  male  refugee  was  to  be  given  forty  acres  with 
the  guarantee  of  possession  for  three  years.  Throughout  the 
existence  of  the  Bureau  its  chief  commissioner  was  General 
O.  O.  Howard.  While  the  principal  officers  were  undoubtedly 
men  of  noble  purpose,  many  of  the  minor  officials  were  just 
as  undoubtedly  corrupt  and  self-seeking.  In  the  winter  of 
1865-6  one-third  of  its  aid  was  given  to  the  white  people  of 
the  South.  For  Negro  pupils  the  Bureau  established  alto- 
gether 4,239  schools,  and  these  had  9,307  teachers  and  247,333 
students.  Its  real  achievement  has  been  thus  ably  summed  up : 
The  greatest  success  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  lay  in  the 
planting  of  the  free  school  among  Negroes,  and  the  idea  of 
free  elementary  education  among  all  classes  in  the  South.  .  .  . 
For  some  fifteen  million  dollars,  beside  the  sum  spent  before 


si 

t-Ki 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  265 

1865,  and  the  dole  of  benevolent  societies,  this  bureau  set  go- 
ing a  system  of  free  labor,  established  a  beginning  of  peasant 
proprietorship,  secured  the  recognition  of  black  freedmen  be- 
fore courts  of  law,  and  founded  the  free  common  school  in 
the  South.  On  the  other  hand,  it  failed  to  begin  the  establish- 
ment of  good  will  between  ex-masters  and  freedmen,  to  guard 
its  work  wholly  from  paternalistic  methods,  which  discour- 
aged self-reliance,  and  to  carry  out  to  any  considerable  extent 
its  implied  promises  to  furnish  the  freedmen  with  land."  *  To 
this  tale  of  its  shortcomings  must  be  added  also  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Freedmen's  Bank,  which  "was  morally  and  practi- 
cally part  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  although  it  had  no  legal 
connection  with  it."  This  institution  made  a  really  remarkable 
start  in  the  development  of  thrift  among  the  Negroes,  and  its 
failure,  involving  the  loss  of  the  first  savings  of  hundreds  of 
ex-slaves,  was  as  disastrous  in  its  moral  as  in  its  immediate 
financial  consequences. 

When  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  came  to  an  end,  it  turned  its 
educational  interests  and  some  money  over  to  the  religious 
and  benevolent  societies  which  had  cooperated  with  it,  espe- 
cially to  the  American  Missionary  Association.  This  society 
had  been  organized  before  the  Civil  War  on  an  interdenom- 
inational and  strong  anti-slavery  basis;  but  with  the  with- 
drawal of  general  interest  the  body  passed  in  188 1  into  the 
hands  of  the  Congregational  Church.  Other  prominent  agencies 
were  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  (also  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society),  the  Freedmen's  Aid 
Society  (representing  the  Northern  Methodists),  and  the  Pres- 
byterian Board  of  Missions.  Actual  work  was  begun  by  the 
American  Missionary  Association.  In  1861  Lewis  Tappan, 
treasurer  of  the  organization,  wrote  to  General  Butler  to  ask 
just  what  aid  could  be  given.  The  result  of  the  correspond- 
ence was  that  on  September  3  of  this  year  Rev.  L.  C.  Lock- 
wood  reached  Hampton  and  on  September  17  opened  the  first 
day  school  among  the  freedmen.  This  school  was  taught  by 
Mrs.  Mary  S.  Peake,  a  woman  of  the  race  who  had  had  the 
advantage  of  a  free  mother,  and  whose  devotion  to  the  work 

*  DuBois :  The  Souts  of  Black  Folk,  32-37. 


266    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

was  such  that  she  soon  died.  However,  she  had  helped  to  lay 
the  foundations  of  Hampton  Institute.  Soon  there  was  a 
school  at  Norfolk,  there  were  two  at  Newport  News,  and  by 
January  schools  at  Hilton  Head  and  Beaufort,  S.  C.  Then 
came  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  throwing  wide  open 
the  door  of  the  great  need.  Rev.  John  Eaton,  army  chaplain 
from  Ohio,  afterwards  United  States  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, was  placed  in  charge  of  the  instruction  of  the  Negroes, 
and  in  one  way  or  another  by  the  close  of  the  war  probably 
as  many  as  one  million  in  the  South  had  learned  to  read  and 
write.  The  83  missionaries  and  teachers  of  the  Association 
in  1863  increased  to  250  in  1864.  At  the  first  day  session  of 
the  school  in  Norfolk  after  the  Proclamation  there  were  350 
scholars,  with  300  others  in  the  evening.  On  the  third  day 
there  were  550  in  the  day  school  and  500  others  in  the  eve- 
ning. The  school  had  to  be  divided,  a  part  going  to  another 
church ;  the  assistants  increased  in  number,  and  soon  the  day 
attendance  was  1,200.  For  such  schools  the  houses  on  aban- 
doned plantations  were  used,  and  even  public  buildings  were 
called  into  commission.  Afterwards  arose  the  higher  institu- 
tions, Atlanta,  Berea,  Fisk,  Talladega,  Straight,  with  numer- 
ous secondary  schools.  Similarly  the  Baptists  founded  the  col- 
leges which,  with  some  changes  of  name,  have  become  Vir- 
ginia Union,  Hartshorn,  Shaw,  Benedict,  Morehouse,  Spel- 
man,  Jackson,  and  Bishop,  with  numerous  affiliated  institu- 
tions. The  Methodists  began  to  operate  Clark  (in  South  At- 
lanta), Claflin,  Rust,  Wiley,  and  others;  and  the  Presby- 
terians, having  already  founded  Lincoln  in  1854,  now  founded 
Biddle  and  several  seminaries  for  young  women ;  while  the 
United  Presbyterians  founded  Knoxville.  In  course  of  time 
the  distinctively  Negro  denominations — the  A.  M.  E.,  the 
A.  M.  E.  Z.,  and  the  C.  M.  E.  (which  last  represented  a 
withdrawal  from  the  Southern  Methodists  in  1870) — also 
helped  in  the  work,  and  thus,  in  addition  to  Wilberforce  in 
Ohio,  arose  such  institutions  as  Morris  Brown  University, 
Livingstone  College,  and  Lane  College.  In  1867,  moreover, 
the  Federal  Government  crowned  its  work  for  the  education 
of  the  Negro  by  the  establishment  at  Washington  of  Howard 
University. 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  267 

As  these  institutions  have  grown  they  have  naturally  de- 
veloped some  differences  or  special  emphasis.  Hampton  and 
Atlanta  University  are  now  independent;  and  Berea  has  had 
a  peculiar  history,  legislation  in  Kentucky  in  1903  restricting 
the  privileges  of  the  institution  to  white  students.  Hampton, 
in  the  hands  of  General  Armstrong,  placed  emphasis  on  the 
idea  of  industrial  and  practical  education  which  has  since  be- 
come world-famous.  In  1871  the  Fisk  Jubilee  Singers  began 
their  memorable  progress  through  America  and  Europe,  meet- 
ing at  first  with  scorn  and  sneers,  but  before  long  touching 
the  heart  of  the  world  with  their  strange  music.  Their  later 
success  was  as  remarkable  as  their  mission  was  unique.  Mean- 
while Spelman  Seminary,  in  the  record  of  her  graduates  who 
have  gone  as  missionaries  to  Africa,  has  also  developed  a  glo- 
rious tradition. 

To  those  heroic  men  and  women  who  represented  this  idea 
of  education  at  its  best,  too  much  credit  can  not  be  given. 
Cravath  at  Fisk,  Ware  at  Atlanta,  Armstrong  at  Hampton, 
Graves  at  Morehouse,  Tupper  at  Shaw,  and  Packard  and  Giles 
at  Spelman,  are  names  that  should  ever  be  recalled  with  thanks- 
giving. These  people  had  no  enviable  task.  They  were  ostra- 
cized and  persecuted,  and  some  of  their  co-workers  even  killed. 
It  is  true  that  their  idea  of  education  founded  on  the  New 
England  college  was  not  very  elastic;  but  their  theory  was 
that  the  young  men  and  women  whom  they  taught,  before  they 
were  Negroes,  were  human  beings.  They  had  the  key  to  the 
eternal  verities,  and  time  will  more  and  more  justify  their 
position. 

To  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  the  South  objected  because  of 
the  political  activity  of  some  of  its  officials.  To  the  schools 
founded  by  missionary  endeavor  it  objected  primarily  on  the 
score  of  social  equality.  To  both  the  provisional  Southern  gov- 
ernments of  1865  replied  with  the  so-callec^Black  Codej.  The 
theory  of  these  remarkable  ordinances — most  harsh  in  Missis- 
sippi,  South  Carolina,  and  Louisiana — was  that  even  if  the 
Negro  was  nominally  free  he  was  by  no  means  able  to  take 
care  of  himself  and  needed  the  tutelage  and  oversight  of  the 
white  man.  Hence  developed  what  was  to  be  known  as  a 
system  of   "apprenticeship."     South   Carolina  in  her   act   of 


268     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

December  21,  1865,  said,  "A  child,  over  the  age  of  two  years, 
born  of  a  colored  parent,  may  be  bound  by  the  father  if  he 
be  living  in  the  district,  or  in  case  of  his  death  or  absence 
from  the  district,  by  the  mother,  as  an  apprentice  to  any  re- 
spectable white  or  colored  person  who  is  competent  to  make 
a  contract;  a  male  until  he  shall  attain  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years,  and  a  female  until  she  shall  attain  the  age  of  eighteen. 
.  .  .  Males  of  the  age  of  twelve  years,  and  females  of  the  age 
of  ten  years,  shall  sign  the  indenture  of  apprenticeship,  and 
be  bound  thereby.  .  .  .  The  master  shall  receive  to  his  own 
use  the  profits  of  the  labor  of  his  apprentice."  To  this  Mis- 
sissippi added:  "If  any  apprentice  shall  leave  the  employment 
of  his  or  her  master  or  mistress,  said  master  or  mistress  may 
pursue  and  recapture  said  apprentice,  and  bring  him  or  her 
before  any  justice  of  peace  of  the  county,  whose  duty  it  shall 
be  to  remand  said  apprentice  to  the  service  of  his  or  her  mas- 
ter or  mistress;  and  in  the  event  of  a  refusal  on  the  part  of 
said  apprentice  so  to  return,  then  said  justice  shall  commit 
said  apprentice  to  the  jail  of  said  county,"  etc.,  etc.  In  gen- 
eral by  such  legislation  the  Negro  was  given  the  right  to  sue 
and  be  sued,  to  testify  in  court  concerning  Negroes,  and  to 
have  marriage  and  the  responsibility  for  children  recognized. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  could  not  serve  on  juries,  could  not  serve 
in  the  militia,  and  could  not  vote  or  hold  office.  He  was  vir- 
tually forbidden  to  assemble,  and  his  freedom  of  movement 
was  restricted.  Within  recent  years  the  Black  Codes  have  been 
more  than  once  defended  as  an  honest  effort  to  meet  a  diffi- 
cult situation,  but  the  old  slavery  attitude  peered  through  them 
and  gave  the  impression  that  those  who  framed  them  did  not 
yet  know  that  the  old  order  had  passed  away. 

Meanwhile  the  South  was  in  a  state  of  panic,  and  the  pro- 
visional governor  of  Mississippi  asked  of  President  Johnson 
permission  to  organize  the  local  militia.  The  request  was 
granted  and  the  patrols  immediately  began  to  show  their  hos- 
tility to  Northern  people  and  the  freedmen.  In  the  spring  of 
1866  there  was  a  serious  race  riot  in  Memphis.  On  July  30, 
while  some  Negroes  were  marching  to  a  political  convention 
in  New  Orleans,  they  became  engaged  in  brawls  with  the  white 
spectators.    Shots  were  exchanged;  the  police,  assisted  by  the 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  269 

spectators,  undertook  to  arrest  the  Negroes ;  the  Negroes  took 
refuge  in  the  convention  hall;  and  their  pursuers  stormed  the 
building  and  shot  down  without  mercy  the  Negroes  and  their 
white  supporters.  Altogether  not  less  than  forty  were  killed 
and  not  less  than  one  hundred  wounded;  but  not  more  than 
a  dozen  men  were  killed  on  the  side  of  the  police  and  the 
white  citizens.  General  Sheridan,  who  was  in  command  at 
New  Orleans,  characterized  the  affair  as  "an  absolute  mas- 
sacre ...  a  murder  which  the  mayor  and  police  of  the  city 
perpetrated  without  the  shadow  of  a  necessity/' 

In  the  face  of  such  events  and  tendencies,  and  influenced 
to  some  extent  by  a  careful  and  illuminating  but  much  criti- 
cized report  of  Carl  Schurz,  Congress,  led  by  Charles  Sumner 
and  Thaddeus  Stevens,  proceeded  to  pass  legislation  designed 
to  protect  the  freedmen  and  to  guarantee  to  the  country  the 
fruits  of  the  war.  The  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion formally  abolishing  slavery  was  passed  December  18,  1865. 
In  the  following  March  Congress  passed  over  the  President's 
veto  the  first  Civil  Rights  Bill,  guaranteeing  to  the  freedmen 
all  the  ordinary  rights  of  citizenship,  and  it  was  about  the 
same  time  that  it  enlarged  the  powers  of  the  Freedmen's  Bu- 
reau. The  Fourteenth  Amendment  (July  28,  1868)  denied 
to  the  states  the  power  to  abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities 
of  citizens  of  the  United  States;  and  the  Fifteenth  Amend- 
ment (March  30,  1870)  sought  to  protect  the  Negro  by  giv- 
ing to  him  the  right  of  suffrage  instead  of  military  protection. 
In  1875  was  passed  the  second  Civil  Rights  act,  designed  to 
give  Negroes  equality  of  treatment  in  theaters,  railway  cars, 
hotels,  etc. ;  but  this  the  Supreme  Court  declared  unconstitu- 
tional in  1883. 

As  a  result  of  this  legislation  the  Negro  was  placed  in  posi- 
tions of  responsibility ;  within  the  next  few  years  the  race  sent 
two  senators  and  thirteen  representatives  to  Congress,  and  in 
some  of  the  state  legislatures,  as  in  South  Carolina,  Negroes 
were  decidedly  in  the  majority.  The  attainments  of  some  of 
these  men  were  undoubtedly  remarkable ;  the  two  United  States 
senators,  Hiram  R.  Revels  and  Blanche  K.  Bruce,  both  from 
Mississippi,  were  of  unquestioned  intelligence  and  ability,  and 
Robert  B.  Elliott,  one  of  the  representatives  from  South  Caro- 


270     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

lina,  attracted  unusual  attention  by  his  speech  in  reply  to  Alex- 
ander Stephens  on  the  constitutionality  of  the  Civil  Rights 
bill.  At  the  same  time  among  the  Negro  legislators  there  was 
also  considerable  ignorance,  and  there  set  in  an  era  of  extrava- 
gance and  corruption  from  which  the  "carpet-baggers"  and  the 
"scalawags"  rather  than  the  Negroes  themselves  reaped  the 
benefit.  Accordingly  within  recent  years  it  has  become  more 
and  more  the  fashion  to  lament  the  ills  of  the  period,  and  no 
representative  American  historian  can  now  write  of  recon- 
struction without  a  tone  of  apology.  A  few  points,  however, 
are  to  be  observed.  In  the  first  place  the  ignorance  was  by 
no  means  so  vast  as  has  been  supposed.  Within  the  four  years 
from  1 86 1  to  1865,  thanks  to  the  army  schools  and  mission- 
ary agencies,  not  less  than  half  a  million  Negroes  in  the  South 
had  learned  to  read  and  write.  Furthermore,  the  suffrage  was 
not  immediately  given  to  the  emancipated  Negroes ;  this  was 
the  last  rather  than  the  first  step  in  reconstruction.  The  pro- 
visional legislatures  formed  at  the  close  of  the  war  were  com- 
posed of  white  men  only;  but  the  experiment  failed  because 
of  the  short-sighted  laws  that  were  enacted.  If  the  fruit  of 
the  Civil  War  was  not  to  be  lost,  if  all  the  sacrifice  was  not 
to  prove  in  vain,  it  became  necessary  for  Congress  to  see  that 
I  the  overthrow  of  slavery  was  final  and  complete.  By  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  the  Negro  was  invested  with  the  ordi- 
nary rights  and  dignity  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  He 
was  not  enfranchised,  but  he  could  no  longer  be  made  the 
victim  of  state  laws  designed  merely  to  keep  him  in  servile 
subjection.  If  the  Southern  states  had  accepted  this  amend- 
ment, they  might  undoubtedly  have  reentered  the  Union  with- 
out further  conditions.  They  refused  to  do  so;  they  refused 
to  help  the  National  Government  in  any  way  whatsoever  in 
its  effort  to  guarantee  to  the  Negro  the  rights  of  manhood. 
Achilles  sulked  in  his  tent,  and  whenever  he  sulks  the  world 
moves  on — without  him.  The  alternative  finally  presented  to 
Congress,  if  it  was  not  to  make  an  absolute  surrender,  was 
either  to  hold  the  South  indefinitely  under  military  subjection 
or  to  place  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  the  Negro.  The  former 
course  was  impossible;  the  latter  was  chosen,  and  the  Union 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  271 

was  really  restored — was  really  saved — by  the  force  of  the 
ballot  in  the  hands  of  black  men. 

It  has  been  held  that  the  Negro  was  primarily  to  blame  for 
the  corruption  of  the  day.  Here  again  it  is  well  to  recall  the 
tendencies  of  the  period.  The  decade  succeeding  the  war  was 
throughout  the  country  one  of  unparalleled  political  corruption. 
The  Tweed  ring,  the  Credit  Mobilier,  and  the  "salary  grab" 
were  only  some  of  the  more  outstanding  signs  of  the  times.  In 
the  South  the  Negroes  were  not  the  real  leaders  in  corruption ; 
they  simply  followed  the  men  who  they  supposed  were  their 
friends.  Surely  in  the  face  of  such  facts  as  these  it  is  not 
just  to  fix  upon  a  people  groping  to  the  light  the  peculiar 
odium  of  the  corruption  that  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  war. 

And  we  shall  have  to  leave  it  to  those  better  informed  than 
we  to  say  to  just  what  extent  city  and  state  politics  in  the 
South,  have  been  cleaned  up  since  the  Negro  ceased  to  be  a 
factor.  Many  of  the  constitutions  framed  by  the.  reconstruc- 
tion governments  were  really  excellent  models,  and  the  fact 
that  they  were  overthrown  seems  to  indicate  that  some  other 
spoilsmen  were  abroad.  Take  North  Carolina,  for  example. 
In  this  state  in  1868  the  reconstruction  government  by  its  new 
constitution  introduced  the  township  system  so  favorably 
known  in  the  North  and  West.  When  in  1875  the  South  re- 
gained control,  with  all  the  corruption  it  found  as  excellent  a 
form  of  republican  state  government  as  was  to  be  found  in 
any  state  in  the  Union.  "Every  provision  which  any  state 
enjoyed  for  the  protection  of  public  society  from  its  bad 
members  and  bad  impulses  was  either  provided  or  easily  pro- 
curable under  the  Constitution  of  the  state."  *  Yet  within  a 
year,  in  order  to  annul  the  power  of  their  opponents  in  every 
county  in  the  state,  the  new  party  so  amended  the  Constitu- 
tion as  to  take  away  from  every  county  the  power  of  self- 
government  and  centralize  everything  in  the  legislature.  Now 
was  realized  an  extent  of  power  over  elections  and  election 
returns  so  great  that  no  party  could  wholly  clear  itself  of  the 
idea  of  corrupt  intentions. 

*  George  W.  Cable:  The  Southern  Struggle  for  Pure  Government: 
An  Address.  Boston,  1890,  included  in  The  Negro  Question,  New  York, 
1890. 


2-J2    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

At  the  heart  of  the  whole  question  of  course  was  race.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  much  work  of  genuine  statesmanship  was 
accomplished  or  attempted  by  the  reconstruction  governments. 
For  one  thing  the  idea  of  common  school  education  fof^all 
people  was  now  for  the  first  time  fully  impressed  upon  the 
South.  The  Charleston  News  and  Courier  of  July  II,  1876, 
formally  granted  that  in  the  administration  of  Governor 
Chamberlain  of  South  Carolina  the  abuse  of  the  pardoning 
power  had  been  corrected;  the  character  of  the  officers  ap- 
pointed by  the  Executive  had  improved;  the  floating  indebted- 
ness of  the  state  had  been  provided  for  in  such  a  way  that 
the  rejection  of  fraudulent  claims  was  assured  and  that  valid 
claims  were  scaled  one-half;  the  tax  laws  had  been  so  amended 
as  to  secure  substantial  equality  in  the  assessment  of  property ; 
taxes  had  been  reduced  to  eleven  mills  on  the  dollar;  the  con- 
tingent fund  of  the  executive  department  had  been  reduced  at 
a  saving  in  two  years  of  $101,200;  legislative  expenses  had 
also  been  reduced  so  as  to  save  in  two  years  $350,000;  legis- 
lative contingent  expenses  had  also  been  handled  so  as  to  save 
$355,000;  and  the  public  printing  reduced  from  $300,000  to 
$50,000  a  year.  There  were,  undoubtedly,  at  first,  many 
corrupt  officials,  white  and  black.  Before  they  were  through, 
however,  after  only  a  few  years  of  experimenting,  the  recon- 
struction governments  began  to  show  signs  of  being  quite  able 
to  handle  the  situation;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  primarily 
the  fear  on  the  part  of  the  white  South  that  they  might  not 
fail  that  prompted  the  determination  to  regain  power  at  what- 
ever cost.    Just  how  this  was  done  we  are  now  to  see. 

3.     Reaction:  The  KuKlux  Klan 

Even  before  the  Civil  War  a  secret  organization,  the 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  had  been  formed  to  advance 
Southern  interests.  After  the  war  there  were  various  organi- 
zations— Men  of  Justice,  Home  Guards,  Pale  Faces,  White 
Brotherhood,  White  Boys,  Council  of  Safety,  etc.,  and,  with 
headquarters  at  New  Orleans,  the  thoroughly  organized 
Knights  of  the  White  Camelia.    All  of  these  had  for  their 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  273 

general  aim  the  restoration  of  power  to  the  white  men  of 
the  South,  which  aim  they  endeavored  to  accomplish  by  regu- 
lating the  conduct  of  the  Negroes  and  their  leaders  in  the 
Republican  organization,  the  Union  League,  especially  by 
playing  upon  the  fears  and  superstitions  of  the  Negroes.  In 
general,  especially  in  the  Southeast,  everything  else  was  sur- 
passed or  superseded  by  the  KuKlux  Klan,  which  originated 
in  Tennessee  in  the  fall  of  1865  as  an  association  of  young 
men  for  amusement,  but  which  soon  developed  into  a  union 
for  the  purpose  of  whipping,  banishing,  terrorizing,  and  mur- 
dering Negroes  and  Northern  white  men  who  encouraged  them 
in  the  exercise  of  their  political  rights.  No  Republican,  no 
member  of  the  Union  League,  and  no  G.  A.  R.  man  could 
become  a  member.  The  costume  of  the  Klan  was  especially 
designed  to  strike  terror  in  the  uneducated  Negroes.  Loose- 
flowing  sleeves,  hoods  in  which  were  apertures  for  the  eyes, 
nose,  and  mouth  trimmed  with  red  material,  horns  made  of 
cotton-stuff  standing  out  on  the  front  and  sides,  high  card- 
board hats  covered  with  white  cloth  decorated  with  stars  or 
pictures  of  animals,  long  tongues  of  red  flannel,  were  all  used 
as  occasion  demanded.  The  KuKlux  Klan  finally  extended 
over  the  whole  South  and  greatly  increased  its  operations  on 
the  cessation  of  martial  law  in  1870.  As  it  worked  generally 
at  night,  with  its  members  in  disguise,  it  was  difficult  for  a 
grand  jury  to  get  evidence  on  which  to  frame  a  bill,  and  almost 
impossible  to  get  a  jury  that  would  return  a  verdict  for  the 
state.  Repeated  measures  against  the  order  were  of  little  effect 
until  an  act  of  1870  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States  courts  to  all  KuKlux  cases.  Even  then  for  some  time 
the  organization  continued  active. 

Naturally  there  were  serious  clashes  before  government  was 
restored  to  the  white  South,  especially  as  the  KuKlux  Klan 
grew  bolder.  At  Colfax,  Grant  Parish,  Louisiana,  in  April, 
1873,  there  was  a  pitched  battle  in  which  several  white  men 
and  more  than  fifty  Negroes  were  killed;  and  violence  in- 
creased as  the  "red  shirt"  campaign  of  1876  approached. 

In  connection  with  the  events  of  this  fateful  year,  and  with 
reference  to  South  Carolina,  where  the  Negro  seemed  most 
solidly  in  power,  we  recall  one  episode,  that  of  the  Hamburg 


274     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Massacre.  We  desire  to  give  this  as  fully  as  possible  in  all 
its  incidents,  because  we  know  of  nothing  that  better  illus- 
trates the  temper  of  the  times,  and  because  a  most  important 
matter  is  regularly  ignored  or  minimized  by  historians.* 

In  South  Carolina  an  act  providing  for  the  enrollment  of 
the  male  citizens  of  the  state,  who  were  by  the  terms  of  the 
said  act  made  subject  to  the  performance  of  militia  duty,  was 
passed  by  the  General  Assembly  and  approved  by  the  Gover- 
nor March  16,  1869.  By  virtue  of  this  act  Negro  citizens 
were  regularly  enrolled  as  a  part  of  the  National  Guard  of 
the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and  as  the  white  men,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  failed  or  refused  to  become  a  part  of  the  said 
force,  the  active  militia  was  composed  almost  wholly  of  Negro 
men.  The  County  of  Edgefield,  of  which  Hamburg  was  a  part, 
was  one  of  the  military  districts  of  the  state  under  the  appor- 
tionment of  the  Adjutant-General,  one  regiment  being  allotted 
to  the  district.  One  company  of  this  regiment  was  in  Ham- 
burg. In  1876  it  had  recently  been  reorganized  with  Doc 
Adams  as  captain,  Lewis  Cartledge  as  first  lieutenant,  and 
A.  T.  Attaway  as  second  lieutenant.  The  ranks  were  recruited 
to  the  requisite  number  of  men,  to  whom  arms  and  equipment 
were  duly  issued. 

On  Tuesday,  July  4,  the  militia  company  assembled  for  drill 
and  while  thus  engaged  paraded  through  one  of  the  least  fre- 

*  Fleming,  in  his  latest  and  most  mature  account  of  reconstruction, 
The  Sequel  of  Appomattox,  has  not  one  word  to  say  about  the  matter. 
Dunning,  in  Reconstruction  Political  and  Economic  (306),  speaks  as 
follows :  "July  6,  1876,  an  armed  collision  between  whites  and  blacks  at 
Hamburg,  Aiken  County,  resulted  in  the  usual  slaughter  of  the  blacks. 
Whether  the  original  cause  of  the  trouble  was  the  insolence  and  threats 
of  a  Negro  militia  company,  or  the  aggressiveness  and  violence  of  some 
young  white  men,  was  much  discussed  throughout  the  state,  and,  indeed, 
the  country  at  large.  Chamberlain  took  frankly  and  strongly  the  ground 
that  the  whites  were  at  fault."  Such  a  statement  we  believe  simply  does 
not  do  justice  to  the  facts.  The  account  given  herewith  is  based  upon  the 
report  of  the  matter  in  a  letter  published  in  a  Washington  paper  and 
submitted  in  connection  with  the  debate  in  the  United  States  House  of 
Representatives,  July  15th  and  18th,  1876,  on  the  Massacre  of  Six 
Colored  Citizens  at  Hamburg,  S.  C,  July  4,  1876;  and  on  "An  Address 
to  the  People  of  the  United  States,  adopted  at  a  Conference  of  Colored 
Citizens,  held  at  Columbia,  S.  C,  July  20th  and  21st,  1876"  (Republican 
Printing  Co.,  Columbia,  S.  C,  1876).  The  Address,  a  document  most 
important  for  the  Negro's  side  of  the  story,  was  signed  by  no  less  than 
sixty  representative  men,  among  them  R.  B.  Elliott,  R.  H.  Gleaves, 
F.  L.  Cardozo,  D.  A.  Straker,  T.  McC.  Stewart,  and  H.  N.  Bouey. 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  275 

quented  streets  of  the  town.  This  street  was  unusually  wide, 
but  while  marching  four  abreast  the  men  were  interrupted  by 
a  horse  and  buggy  driven  into  their  ranks  by  Thomas  Butler 
and  Henry  Getzen,  white  men  who  resided  about  two  miles 
from  the  town.  At  the  time  of  this  interference  the  company 
was  occupying  a  space  covering  a  width  of  not  more  than 
eight  feet,  so  that  on  either  side  there  was  abundant  room  for 
vehicles.  At  the  interruption  Captain  Adams  commanded  a 
halt  and,  stepping  to  the  head  of  his  column,  said,  "Mr.  Get- 
zen, I  did  not  think  that  you  would  treat  me  this  way ;  I  would 
not  so  act  towards  you."  To  this  Getzen  replied  with  curses, 
and  after  a  few  more  remarks  on  either  side,  Adams,  in  order 
to  avoid  further  trouble,  commanded  his  men  to  break  ranks 
and  permit  the  buggy  to  pass  through.  The  company  was  then 
marched  to  the  drill  rooms  and  dismissed. 

On  Wednesday,  July  5,  Robert  J.  Butler,  father  of  Thomas 
Butler  and  father-in-law  of  Getzen,  appeared  before  P.  R. 
Rivers,  colored  trial  justice,  and  made  complaint  that  the  mili- 
tia company  had  on  the  previous  day  obstructed  one  of  the 
public  streets  of  Hamburg  and  prevented  his  son  and  son-in- 
law  from  passing  through.  Rivers  accordingly  issued  a  sum- 
mons for  the  officers  to  appear  the  next  day,  July  6.  When 
Adams  and  his  two  lieutenants  appeared  on  Thursday,  they 
found  present  Robert  J.  Butler  and  several  other  white  men 
heavily  armed  with  revolvers.  On  the  calling  of  the  case  it 
was  announced  that  the  defendants  were  present  and  that 
Henry  Sparnick,  a  member  of  the  circuit  bar  of  the  county, 
had  been  retained  to  represent  them.  Butler  angrily  protested 
against  such  representation  and  demanded  that  the  hearing  be 
postponed  until  he  could  procure  counsel  from  the  city  of 
Augusta;  whereupon  Adams  and  his  lieutenants,  after  consul- 
tation with  their  attorney,  who  informed  them  that  there  were 
no  legal  grounds  on  which  the  case  could  be  decided  against 
them,  waived  their  constitutional  right  to  be  represented  by 
counsel  and  consented  to  go  to  trial.  On  this  basis  the  case 
was  opened  and  proceeded  with  for  some  time,  when  on  ac- 
count of  some  disturbance  its  progress  was  arrested,  and  it 
was  adjourned  for  further  hearing  on  the  following  Saturday, 
July  8,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 


276    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

On  Saturday,  between  two  and  three  o'clock,  General  M.  C. 
Butler,  of  Edgefield,  formerly  an  officer  in  the  Confederate 
army,  arrived  in  Hamburg,  and  he  was  followed  by  mounted 
men  in  squads  of  ten  or  fifteen  until  the  number  was  more 
than  two  hundred,  the  last  to  arrive  being  Colonel  A.  P.  But- 
ler at  the  head  of  threescore  men.  Immediately  after  his  arrival 
General  Butler  sent  for  Attorney  Sparnick,  who  was  charged 
with  the  request  to  Rivers  and  the  officers  of  the  militia  com- 
pany to  confer  with  him  at  once.  There  was  more  passing  of 
messengers  back  and  forth,  and  it  was  at  length  deemed  best 
for  the  men  to  confer  with  Butler.  To  this  two  of  the  officers 
objected  on  the  ground  that  the  whole  plan  was  nothing  more 
than  a  plot  for  their  assassination.  They  sent  to  ask  if  Gen- 
eral Butler  would  meet  them  without  the  presence  of  his 
armed  force.  He  replied  Yes,  but  before  arrangements  could 
be  made  for  the  interview  another  messenger  came  to  say  that 
the  hour  for  the  trial  had  arrived,  that  General  Butler  was 
at  the  court,  and  that  he  requested  the  presence  of  the  trial 
justice,  Rivers.  Rivers  proceeded  to  court  alone  and  found 
Butler  there  waiting  for  him.  He  was  about  to  proceed  with 
the  case  when  Butler  asked  for  more  time,  which  request  was 
granted.  He  went  away  and  never  returned  to  the  court. 
Instead  he  went  to  the  council  chamber,  being  surrounded  now 
by  greater  and  greater  numbers  of  armed  men,  and  he  sent  a 
committee  to  the  officers  asking  that  they  come  to  the  council 
chamber  to  see  him.  The  men  again  declined  for  the  same 
reason  as  before.  Butler  now  sent  an  ultimatum  demanding 
that  the  officers  apologize  for  what  took  place  on  July  4  and 
that  they  surrender  to  him  their  arms,  threatening  that  if  the 
surrender  was  not  made  at  once  he  would  take  their  guns  and 
officers  by  force.  Adams  and  his  men  now  awoke  to  a  full 
sense  of  their  danger,  and  they  asked  Rivers,  who  was  not 
only  trial  justice  but  also  Major  General  of  the  division  of 
the  militia  to  which  they  belonged,  if  he  demanded  their  arms 
of  them.  Rivers  replied  that  he  did  not.  Thereupon  the  officers 
refused  the  request  of  Butler  on  the  ground  that  he  had  no 
legal  right  to  demand  their  arms  or  to  receive  them  if  sur- 
rendered. At  this  point  Butler  let  it  be  known  that  he  de- 
manded the  surrender  of  the  arms  within  half  an  hour  and 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  177 

that  if  he  did  not  receive  them  he  would  'lay  the  d town 

in  ashes."  Asked  in  an  interview  whether,  if  his  terms  were 
complied  with,  he  would  guarantee  protection  to  the  people 
of  the  town  he  answered  that  he  did  not  know  and  that  that 
would  depend  altogether  upon  how  they  behaved  themselves. 

Butler  now  went  with  a  companion  to  Augusta,  returning 
in  about  thirty  minutes.  A  committee  called  upon  him  as  soon 
as  he  got  back.  He  had  only  to  say  that  he  demanded  the 
arms  immediately.  Asked  if  he  would  accept  the  boxing  up 
of  the  arms  and  the  sending  of  them  to  the  Governor,  he 

said,  "D the  Governor.   I  am  not  here  to  consult  him,  but 

am  here  as  Colonel  Butler,  and  this  won't  stop  until  after 
November."  Asked  again  if  he  would  guarantee  general  pro- 
tection if  the  arms  were  surrendered,  he  said,  "I  guarantee 
nothing." 

All  the  while  scores  of  mounted  men  were  about  the  streets. 
Such  members  of  the  militia  company  as  were  in  town  and 
their  friends  to  the  number  of  thirty-eight  repaired  to  their 
armory — a  large  brick  building  about  two  hundred  yards  from 
the  river — and  barricaded  themselves  for  protection.  Firing 
upon  the  armory  was  begun  by  the  mounted  men,  and  after 
half  an  hour  there  were  occasional  shots  from  within.  After 
a  while  the  men  in  the  building  heard  an  order  to  bring  cannon 
from  Augusta,  and  they  began  to  leave  the  building  from  the 
rear,  concealing  themselves  as  well  as  they  could  in  a  cornfield. 
The  cannon  was  brought  and  discharged  three  or  four  times, 
those  firing  it  not  knowing  that  the  building  had  been  evacu- 
ated. When  they  realized  their  mistake  they  made  a  general 
search  through  lots  and  yards  for  the  members  of  the  com- 
pany and  finally  captured  twenty-seven  of  them,  after  two  had 
been  killed.  The  men,  none  of  whom  now  had  arms,  were 
marched  to  a  place  near  the  railroad  station,  where  the  ser- 
geant of  the  company  was  ordered  to  call  the  roll.  Allan  T. 
Attaway,  whose  name  was  first,  was  called  out  and  shot  in 
cold  blood.  Twelve  men  fired  upon  him  and  he  was  killed  in- 
stantly. The  men  whose  names  were  second,  third,  and  fourth 
on  the  list  were  called  out  and  treated  likewise.  The  fifth  man 
made  a  dash  for  liberty  and  escaped  with  a  slight  wound  in 
the  leg.    All  the  others  were  then  required  to  hold  up  their 


278     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

right  hands  and  swear  that  they  would  never  bear  arms  against 
the  white  people  or  give  in  court  any  testimony  whatsoever 
regarding  the  occurrence.  They  were  then  marched  off  two 
by  two  and  dispersed,  but  stray  shots  were  fired  after  them  as 
they  went  away.  In  another  portion  of  the  town  the  chief  of 
police,  James  Cook,  was  taken  from  his  home  and  brutally 
murdered.  A  marshal  of  the  town  was  shot  through  the  body 
and  mortally  wounded.  One  of  the  men  killed  was  found  with 
his  tongue  cut  out.  The  members  of  Butler's  party  finally 
entered  the  homes  of  most  of  the  prominent  Negroes  in  the 
town,  smashed  the  furniture,  tore  books  to  pieces,  and  cut  pic- 
tures from  their  frames,  all  amid  the  most  heartrending  dis- 
tress on  the  part  of  the  women  and  children.  That  night  the 
town  was  desolate,  for  all  who  could  do  so  fled  to  Aiken  or 
Columbia. 

Upon  all  of  which  our  only  comment  is  that  while  such  a 
process  might  seem  for  a  time  to  give  the  white  man  power, 
it  makes  no  progress  whatever  toward  the  ultimate  solution 
of  the  problem. 


4.     Counter-Reaction:  The  Negro  Exodus 

The  Negro  Exodus  of  1879  was  partially  considered  in  con- 
nection with  our  study  of  Liberia;  but  a  few  facts  are  in 
place  here. 

After  the  withdrawal  of  Federal  troops  conditions  in  the 
South  were  changed  so  much  that,  especially  in  South  Caro- 
lina, Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  the  state  of  af- 
fairs was  no  longer  tolerable.  Between  1866  and  1879  more 
than  three  thousand  Negroes  were  summarily  killed.*  The 
race  began  to  feel  that  a  new  slavery  in  the  horrible  form  of 
peonage  was  approaching,  and  that  the  disposition  of  the  men 
in  power  was  to  reduce  the  laborer  to  the  minimum  of  advan- 
tages as  a  free  man  and  to  none  at  all  as  a  citizen.  The  fear, 
which  soon  developed  into  a  panic,  rose  especially  in  conse- 

*  Emmett  J.  Scott:  Negro  Migration  during  the  War  (in  Preliminary 
Economic  Studies  of  the  War — Carnegie  Endowment  for  International 
Peace:  Division  of  Economics  and  History).  Oxford  University  Press, 
American  Branch,  New  York,  1920. 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  279 

quence  of  the  work  of  political  mobs  in  1874  and  1875,  and 
it  soon  developed  organization.  About  this  the  outstanding 
fact  was  that  the  political  leaders  of  the  last  few  years  were 
regularly  distrusted  and  ignored,  the  movement  being  secret 
in  its  origin  and  committed  either  to  the  plantation  laborers 
themselves  or  their  direct  representatives.  In  North  Carolina 
circulars  about  Nebraska  were  distributed.  In  Tennessee  Ben- 
jamin ('Tap")  Singleton  began  about  1869  to  induce  Negroes 
to  go  to  Kansas,  and  he  really  founded  two  colonies  with  a 
total  of  7432  Negroes  from  his  state,  paying  of  his  own 
money  over  $600  for  circulars.  In  Louisiana  alone  70,000 
names  were  taken  of  those  who  wished  to  better  their  condi- 
tion by  removal;  and  by  1878  98,000  persons  in  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Texas  were  ready  to  go  elsewhere. 
A  convention  to  consider  the  whole  matter  of  migration  was 
held  in  Nashville  in  1879.  At  this  the  politician  managed  to 
put  in  an  appearance  and  there  was  much  wordy  discussion. 
At  the  same  time  much  of  the  difference  of  opinion  was  honest; 
the  meeting  was  on  the  whole  constructive;  and  it  expressed 
itself  as  favorable  to  "reasonable  migration."  Already,  how- 
ever, thousands  of  Negroes  were  leaving  their  homes  in  the 
South  and  going  in  greatest  numbers  to  Kansas,  Missouri, 
and  Indiana.  Within  twenty  months  Kansas  alone  received  in 
this  way  an  addition  to  her  population  of  40,000  persons. 
Many  of  these  people  arrived  at  their  destination  practically 
penniless  and  without  prospect  of  immediate  employment;  but 
help  was  afforded  by  relief  agencies  in  the  North,  and  they 
themselves  showed  remarkable  sturdiness  in  adapting  them- 
selves to  the  new  conditions. 

Many  of  the  stories  that  the  Negroes  told  were  pathetic* 
Sometimes  boats  would  not  take  them  on,  and  they  suffered 
from  long  exposure  on  the  river  banks.  Sometimes,  while  they 
were  thus  waiting,  agents  of  their  own  people  employed  by 
the  planters  tried  to  induce  them  to  remain.  Frequently  they 
were  clubbed  or  whipped.  Said  one:  "I  saw  nine  put  in  one 
pile,  that  had  been  killed,  and  the  colored  people  had  to  bury 
them;  eight  others  were  found  killed  in  the  woods.  ...  It  is 

*  See  Negro  Exodus  (Report  of  Colonel  Frank  H.  Fletcher). 


280     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

done  this  way:  they  arrest  them  for  breach  of  contract  and 
carry  them  to  jail.  Their  money  is  taken  from  them  by  the 
jailer  and  it  is  not  returned  when  they  are  let  go."  Said  an- 
other: "If  a  colored  man  stays  away  from  the  polls  and  does 
not  vote,  they  spot  him  and  make  him  vote.  If  he  votes  their 
way,  they  treat  him  no  better  in  business.  They  hire  the  col- 
ored people  to  vote,  and  then  take  their  pay  away.  I  know  a 
man  to  whom  they  gave  a  cow  and  a  calf  for  voting  their 
ticket.  After  election  they  came  and  told  him  that  if  he  kept 
the  cow  he  must  pay  for  it;  and  they  took  the  cow  and  calf 
away."    Another:  "One  man  shook  his  fist  in  my  face  and 

said,  'D you,  sir,  you  are  my  property.'    He  said  that  I 

owed  him.  He  could  not  show  it  and  then  said,  'You  sha'n't 
go  anyhow.'  All  we  want  is  a  living  chance."  Another :  "There 
is  a  general  talk  among  the  whites  and  colored  people  that 
Jeff  Davis  will  run  for  president  of  the  Southern  states,  and 
the  colored  people  are  afraid  they  will  be  made  slaves  again. 
They  are  already  trying  to  prevent  them  from  going  from  one 
plantation  to  another  without  a  pass."  Another :  "The  deputy 
sheriff  came  and  took  away  from  me  a  pair  of  mules.  He 
had  a  constable  and  twenty-five  men  with  guns  to  back  him." 
Another:  "Last  year,  after  settling  with  my  landlord,  my 
share  was  four  bales  of  cotton.  I  shipped  it  to  Richardson 
and  May,  38  and  40  Perdido  Street,  New  Orleans,  through 
W.  E.  Ringo  &  Co.,  merchants,  at  Mound  Landing,  Miss.  I 
lived  four  miles  back  of  this  landing.  I  received  from  Ringo 
a  ticket  showing  that  my  cotton  was  sold  at  nine  and  three- 
eighths  cents,  but  I  could  never  get  a  settlement.  He  kept  put- 
ting me  off  by  saying  that  the  bill  of  lading  had  not  come. 
Those  bales  averaged  over  four  hundred  pounds.  I  did  not 
owe  him  over  twenty-five  dollars.  A  man  may  work  there 
from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  night,  and  be  as  economi- 
cal as  he  pleases,  and  he  will  come  out  in  debt.  I  am  a  close 
man,  and  I  work  hard.  I  want  to  be  honest  in  getting  through 
the  world.  I  came  away  and  left  a  crop  of  corn  and  cotton 
growing  up.  I  left  it  because  I  did  not  want  to  work  twelve 
months  for  nothing.  I  have  been  trying  it  for  fifteen  years, 
thinking  every  year  that  it  would  get  better,  and  it  gets  worse." 
Said  still  another:  "I  learned  about  Kansas  from  the  news- 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  281 

papers  that  I  got  hold  of.  They  were  Southern  papers.  I  got 
a  map,  and  found  out  where  Kansas  was ;  and  I  got  a  History 
of  the  United  States,  and  read  about  it." 

Query:  Was  it  genuine  statesmanship  that  permitted  these 
people  to  feel  that  they  must  leave  the  South? 


5.     A  Postscript  on  the  War  and  Reconstruction 

Of  all  of  the  stories  of  these  epoch-making  years  we  have 
chosen  one — an  idyl  of  a  woman  with  an  alabaster  box,  of  one 
who  had  a  clear  conception  of  the  human  problem  presented 
and  who  gave  her  life  in  the  endeavor  to  meet  it. 

In  the  fall  of  1862  a  young  woman  who  was  destined  to  be 
a  great  missionary  entered  the  Seminary  at  Rockford,  Illinois. 
There  was  little  to  distinguish  her  from  the  other  students 
except  that  she  was  very  plainly  dressed  and  seemed  forced 
to  spend  most  of  her  spare  time  at  work.  Yes,  there  was  one 
other  difference.  She  was  older  than  most  of  the  girls — already 
thirty,  and  rich  in  experience.  When  not  yet  fifteen  she  had 
taught  a  country  school  in  Pennsylvania.  At  twenty  she  was 
considered  capable  of  managing  an  unusually  turbulent  crowd 
of  boys  and  girls.  When  she  was  twenty-seven  her  father  died, 
leaving  upon  her  very  largely  the  care  of  her  mother.  At 
twenty-eight  she  already  looked  back  upon  fourteen  years  as 
a  teacher,  upon  some  work  for  Christ  incidentally  accomplished, 
but  also  upon  a  fading  youth  of  wasted  hopes  and  unfulfilled 
desires. 

Then  came  a  great  decision — not  the  first,  not  the  last,  but 
one  of  the  most  important  that  marked  her  long  career.  Her 
education  was  by  no  means  complete,  and,  at  whatever  cost, 
she  would  go  to  school.  That  she  had  no  money,  that  her 
clothes  were  shabby,  that  her  mother  needed  her,  made  no 
difference;  now  or  never  she  would  realize  her  ambition.  She 
would  do  anything,  however  menial,  if  it  was  honest  and  would 
give  her  food  while  she  continued  her  studies.  For  one  long 
day  she  walked  the  streets  of  Belvidere  looking  for  a  home. 
Could  any  one  use  a  young  woman  who  wanted  to  work  for 


282     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

her  board?  Always  the  same  reply.  Nightfall  brought  her  to 
a  farmhouse  in  the  suburbs  of  the  town.  She  timidly  knocked 
on  the  door.  "No,  we  do  not  need  any  one,"  said  the  woman 
who  greeted  her,  "but  wait  until  I  see  my  husband."  The  man 
of  the  house  was  very  unwilling,  but  decided  to  give  shelter 
for  the  night.  The  next  morning  he  thought  differently  about 
the  matter,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  young  woman  en- 
tered school.  The  work  was  hard ;  fires  had  to  be  made,  break- 
fasts on  cold  mornings  had  to  be  prepared,  and  sometimes  the 
washing  was  heavy.  Naturally  the  time  for  lessons  was  fre- 
quently cut  short  or  extended  far  into  the  night.  But  the 
woman  of  the  house  was  kind,  and  her  daughter  a  helpful 
fellow-student. 

The  next  summer  came  another  season  at  school-teaching, 
and  then  the  term  at  Rockford.  1862!  a  great  year  that  in 
American  history,  one  more  famous  for  the  defeat  of  the 
Union  arms  than  for  their  success.  But  in  September  came 
Antietam,  and  the  heart  of  the  North  took  courage.  Then 
with  the  new  year  came  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

The  girls  at  Rockford,  like  the  people  everywhere,  were  in- 
terested in  the  tremendous  events  that  were  shaking  the  nation. 
A  new  note  of  seriousness  crept  into  their  work.  Embroidery 
was  laid  aside ;  instead,  socks  were  knit  and  bandages  prepared. 
On  the  night  of  January  1  a  jubilee  meeting  was  held  in  the 
town. 

To  Joanna  P.  Moore,  however,  the  news  of  freedom 
brought  a  strange  undertone  of  sadness.  She  could  not  help 
thinking  of  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  condition  of  the  mil- 
lions now  emancipated.  Strange  that  she  should  be  possessed 
by  this  problem!  She  had  thought  of  work  in  China,  or 
India,  or  even  in  Africa — but  of  this,  never! 

In  February  a  man  who  had  been  on  Island  No.  10  came 
to  the  Seminary  and  told  the  girls  of  the  distress  of  the  women 
and  children  there.  Cabins  and  tents  were  everywhere.  As 
many  as  three  families,  with  eight  or  ten  children  each,  cooked 
their  food  in  the  same  pot  on  the  same  fire.  Sometimes  the 
women  were  peevish  or  quarrelsome ;  always  the  children  were 
dirty.  "What  can  a  man  do  to  help  such  a  suffering  mass  of 
humanity  ?"  asked  the  speaker.   "Nothing.   A  woman  is  needed ; 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  283 

nobody  else  will  do."  For  the  student  listening  so  intently 
the  cheery  schoolrooms  with  their  sweet  associations  faded; 
the  vision  of  foreign  missions  also  vanished;  and  in  their  stead 
stood  only  a  pitiful  black  woman  with  a  baby  in  her  arms. 

She  reached  Island  No.  10  in  November.  The  outlook  was 
dismal  enough.  The  Sunday  school  at  Belvidere  had  pledged 
four  dollars  a  month  toward  her  support,  and  this  was  all 
the  money  in  sight,  though  the  Government  provided  trans- 
portation and  soldiers'  rations.  That  was  in  1863,  sixty  years 
ago;  but  every  year  since  then,  until  1916,  in  summer  and 
winter,  in  sunshine  and  rain,  in  the  home  and  the  church,  with 
teaching  and  praying,  feeding  and  clothing,  nursing  and  hop- 
ing and  loving,  Joanna  P.  Moore  in  one  way  or  another  min- 
istered to  the  Negro  people  of  the  South. 

In  April,  1864,  her  whole  colony  was  removed  to  Helena, 
Arkansas.  The  Home  Farm  was  three  miles  from  Helena. 
Here  was  gathered  a  great  crowd  of  women  and  children  and 
helpless  old  men,  all  under  the  guard  of  a  company  of  soldiers 
in  a  fort  nearby.  Thither  went  the  missionary  alone,  except 
for  her  faith  in  God.  She  made  an  arbor  with  some  rude  seats, 
nailed  a  blackboard  to  a  tree,  divided  the  people  into  four 
groups,  and  began  to  teach  school.  In  the  twilight  every  eve- 
ning a  great  crowd  gathered  around  her  cabin  for  prayers. 
A  verse  of  the  Bible  was  read  and  explained,  petitions  were 
offered,  one  of  the  sorrow-songs  was  chanted,  and  then  the 
service  was  over. 

Some  Quaker  workers  were  her  friends  in  Helena,  and  in 
1868  she  went  to  Lauderdale,  Mississippi,  to  help  the  Friends 
in  an  orphan  asylum.  Six  weeks  after  her  arrival  the  superin- 
tendent's daughter  died,  and  the  parents  left  to  take  their  child 
back  to  their  Indiana  home  to  rest.  The  lone  woman  was  left 
in  charge  of  the  asylum.  Cholera  broke  out.  Eleven  children 
died  within  one  week.  Still  she  stood  by  her  post.  Often,  she 
said,  those  who  were  well  and  happy  when  they  retired,  ere 
daylight  came  were  in  the  grave,  for  they  were  buried  the 
same  hour  they  died.  Night  after  night  she  prayed  to  God  in 
the  dark,  and  at  length  the  fury  of  the  plague  was  abated. 

From  time  to  time  the  failing  health  of  her  mother  called 
her  home,  and  from  1870  to  1873  sne  once  more  taught  school 


284     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

near  Belvidere.  The  first  winter  the  school  was  in  the  country. 
"You  can  never  have  a  Sunday  school  in  the  winter,"  they 
told  her.  But  she  did;  in  spite  of  the  snow,  the  house  was 
crowded  every  Sunday,  whole  families  coming  in  sleighs.  Even 
at  that  the  real  work  of  the  teacher  was  with  the  Negroes  of 
the  South.  In  her  prayers  and  public  addresses  they  were 
always  with  her,  and  in  1873  friends  in  Chicago  made  it  pos- 
sible for  her  to  return  to  the  work  of  her  choice.  In  1877 
the  Woman's  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  honored  itself 
by  giving  to  her  its  first  commission. 

Nine  years  she  spent  in  the  vicinity  of  New  Orleans.  Near 
Leland  University  she  found  a  small,  one-room  house.  After 
buying  a  bed,  a  table,  two  chairs,  and  a  few  cooking  utensils, 
she  began  housekeeping.  Often  she  started  out  at  six  in  the 
morning,  not  to  return  until  dark.  Most  frequently  she  read 
the  Bible  to  those  who  could  not  read.  Sometimes  she  gave 
cheer  to  mothers  busy  over  the  washtub.  Sometimes  she  would 
teach  the  children  to  read  or  to  sew.  Often  she  would  write 
letters  for  those  who  had  been  separated  from  friends  or  kin- 
dred in  the  dark  days.  She  wrote  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
such  letters;  and  once  in  a  while,  a  very  long  while,  came  a 
response. 

Most  pitiful  of  all  the  objects  she  found  in  New  Orleans 
were  the  old  women  worn  out  with  years  of  slavery.  They 
were  usually  rag-pickers  who  ate  at  night  the  scraps  for  which 
they  had  begged  during  the  day.  There  was  in  the  city  an 
Old  Ladies'  Home;  but  this  was  not  for  Negroes.  A  house 
was  secured  and  the  women  taken  in,  Joanna  Moore  and  her 
associates  moving  into  the  second  story.  Sometimes,  very 
often,  there  was  real  need;  but  sometimes,  too,  provisions 
came  when  it  was  not  known  who  sent  them ;  money  or  boxes 
came  from  Northern  friends  who  had  never  seen  the  workers ; 
and  the  little  Negro  children  in  the  Sunday  schools  in  the  city 
gave  their  pennies. 

In  1878  the  laborer  in  the  Southwest  started  on  a  journey 
of  exploration.  In  Atlanta  Dr.  Robert  at  Atlanta  Baptist  Sem- 
inary (now  Morehouse  College)  gave  her  cheer;  so  did  Presi- 
dent Ware  at  Atlanta  University.  At  Benedict  in  Columbia 
she  saw  Dr.  Goodspeed,  President  Tupper  at  Shaw  in  Raleigh, 


THE  ERA  OF  ENFRANCHISEMENT  285 

and  Dr.  Corey  in  Richmond.  In  May  she  appeared  at  the 
Baptist  anniversaries,  with  fifteen  years  of  missionary  achieve- 
ment already  behind  her. 

But  each  year  brought  its  own  sorrows  and  disappointments. 
She  wanted  the  Society  to  establish  a  training  school  for 
women;  but  to  this  objection  was  raised.  In  Louisiana  also 
it  was  not  without  danger  that  a  white  woman  attended  a 
Negro  association  in  1877;  and  there  were  always  sneers  and 
jeers.  At  length,  however,  a  training  school  for  mothers  was 
opened  in  Baton  Rouge.  All  went  well  for  two  years;  and 
then  a  notice  with  skull  and  crossbones  was  placed  on  the  gate. 
The  woman  who  had  worked  through  the  cholera  still  stood 
firm;  but  the  students  had  gone.  Sick  at  heart  and  worn  out 
with  waiting,  she  at  last  left  Baton  Rouge  and  the  state  in 
which  so  many  of  her  best  years  had  been  spent. 

"Bible  Band"  work  was  started  in  1884,  and  Hope  in  1885. 
The  little  paper,  beginning  with  a  circulation  of  five  hundred, 
has  now  reached  a  monthly  issue  of  twenty  thousand  copies, 
and  daily  it  brings  its  lesson  of  cheer  to  thousands  of  mothers 
and  children  in  the  South.  In  connection  with  it  all  has  de- 
veloped the  Fireside  School,  than  which  few  agencies  have  been 
more  potent  in  the  salvation  and  uplift  of  the  humble  Negro 
home. 

What  wisdom  was  gathered  from  the  passing  of  fourscore 
years!  On  almost  every  page  of  her  tracts,  her  letters,  her 
account  of  her  life,  one  finds  quotations  of  proverbial  pith: 

The  love  of  God  gave  me  courage  for  myself  and  the  rest  of  man- 
kind; therefore  I  concluded  to  invest  in  human  souls.  They  surely 
are  worth  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world. 

Beloved  friends,  be  hopeful,  be  courageous.  God  can  not  use  dis- 
couraged people. 

The  good  news  spread,  not  by  telling  what  we  were  going  to  do 
but  by  praising  God  for  what  had  been  done. 

So  much  singing  in  all  our  churches  leaves  too  little  time  for  the 
Bible  lesson.  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  do  love  music  that  im- 
presses the  meaning  of  words.  But  no  one  climbs  to  heaven  on 
musical  scales. 

I  thoroughly  believe  that  the  only  way  to  succeed  with  any  vocation 
is  to  make  it  a  part  of  your  very  self  and  weave  it  into  your  every 
thought  and  prayer. 


286     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

You  must  love  before  you  can  comfort  and  help. 

There  is  no  place  too  lowly  or  dark  for  our  feet  to  enter,  and  no 
place  so  high  and  bright  but  it  needs  the  touch  of  the  light  that  we 
carry  from  the  Cross. 

How  shall  we  measure  such  a  life?  Who  can  weigh  love 
and  hope  and  service,  and  the  joy  of  answered  prayer?  "An 
annual  report  of  what?"  she  once  asked  the  secretary  of  her 
organization.  "Report  of  tears  shed,  prayers  offered,  smiles 
scattered,  lessons  taught,  steps  taken,  cheering  words,  warning 
words — tender,  patient  words  for  the  little  ones,  stern  but  lov- 
ing tones  for  the  wayward — songs  of  hope  and  songs  of  sor- 
row, wounded  hearts  healed,  light  and  love  poured  into  dark 
sad  homes?  Oh,  Miss  Burdette,  you  might  as  well  ask  me  to 
gather  up  the  raindrops  of  last  year  or  the  petals  that  fall  from 
the  flowers  that  bloomed.  It  is  true  that  I  can  send  you  a  little 
stagnant  water  from  the  cistern,  and  a  few  dried  flowers;  but 
if  you  want  to  know  the  freshness,  the  sweetness,  the  glory, 
the  grandeur,  of  our  God-given  work,  then  you  must  come 
and  keep  step  with  us  from  early  morn  to  night  for  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year." 

Until  the  very  last  she  was  on  the  roll  of  the  active  workers 
of  the  Woman's  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society. 
In  the  fall  of  191 5  she  decided  that  she  must  once  more  see 
the  schools  in  the  South  that  meant  so  much  to  her.  In  De- 
cember she  came  again  to  her  beloved  Spelman.  While  in 
Atlanta  she  met  with  an  accident  that  still  further  weakened 
her.  After  a  few  weeks,  however,  she  went  on  to  Jackson- 
ville, and  then  to  Selma.    There  she  passed. 

When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the 
holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his 
glory.  .  .  .  Then  shall  the  righteous  answer  him,  saying, 
Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered,  and  fed  thee  ?  or  thirsty, 
and  gave  thee  drink  ?  When  saw  we  thee  a  stranger,  and  took 
thee  in?  or  naked,  and  clothed  thee?  Or  when  saw  we  thee 
sick,  or  in  prison,  and  came  unto  thee?  And  the  King  shall 
answer  and  say  unto  them,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Inasmuch 
as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
you  have  done  it  unto  me. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

i.     Political  Life:  Disfranchisement 

By  1876  the  reconstruction  governments  had  all  but  passed. 
A  few  days  after  his  inauguration  in  1877  President  Hayes 
sent  to  Louisiana  a  commission  to  investigate  the  claims  of 
rival  governments  there.  The  decision  was  in  favor  of  the 
Democrats.  On  April  9  the  President  ordered  the  removal  of  \ 
Federal  troops  from  public  buildings  in  the  South;  and  in 
Columbia,  S.  C,  within  a  few  days  the  Democratic  admini- 
stration of  Governor  Wade  Hampton  was  formally  recog- 
nized. The  new  governments  at  once  set  about  the  abrogation 
of  the  election  laws  that  had  protected  the  Negro  in  the  exer- 
cise of  suffrage,  and,  having  by  1877  obtained  a  majority  in 
the  national  House  of  Representatives,  the  Democrats  resortedj 
to  the  practice  of  attaching  their  repeal  measures  to  appropria- 
tion bills  in  the  hope  of  compelling  the  President  to  sign  them.l 
Men  who  had  been  prominently  connected  with  the  Confed-* 
eracy  were  being  returned  to  Congress  in  increasing  numbers, 
but  in  general  the  Democrats  were  not  able  to  carry  their  meas- 
ures over  the  President's  veto.  From  the  Supreme  Court, 
however,  they  received  practical  assistance,  for  while  this  body 
did  not  formally  grant  that  the  states  had  full  powers  over 
elections,  it  nevertheless  nullified  many  of  the  most  objection- 
able sections  of  the  laws.  Before  the  close  of  the  decade,  by 
intimidation,  the  theft,  suppression  or  exchange  of  the  ballot 
boxes,  the  removal  of  the  polls  to  unknown  places,  false  certi- 
fications, and  illegal  arrests  on  the  day  before  an  election,  the 
Negro  vote  had  been  rendered  ineffectual  in  every  state  of  the 
South. 

When  Cleveland  was  elected  in  1884  the  Negroes  of  the 
South  naturally  felt  that  the  darkest  hour  of  their  political 


288     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

fortunes  had  come.  It  had,  for  among  many  other  things  this 
election  said  that  after  twenty  years  of  discussion  and  tumult 
the  Negro  question  was  to  be  relegated  to  the  rear,  and  that 
the  country  was  now  to  give  main  attention  to  other  problems. 
For  the  Negro  the  new  era  was  signalized  by  one  of  the  most 
effective  speeches  ever  delivered  in  this  or  any  other  country, 
all  the  more  forceful  because  the  orator  was  a  man  of  unusual 
nobility  of  spirit.  In  1886  Henry  W.  Grady,  of  Georgia,  ad- 
dressed the  New  England  Club  in  New  York  on  "The  New 
South."  He  spoke  to  practical  men  and  he  knew  his  ground. 
He  asked  his  hearers  to  bring  their  "full  faith  in  American 
fairness  and  frankness"  to  judgment  upon  what  he  had  to  say. 
He  pictured  in  brilliant  language  the  Confederate  soldier, 
"ragged,  half-starved,  heavy-hearted,  who  wended  his  way 
homeward  to  find  his  house  in  ruins  and  his  farm  devastated." 
He  also  spoke  kindly  of  the  Negro:  "Whenever  he  struck  a 
blow  for  his  own  liberty  he  fought  in  open  battle,  and  when 
at  last  he  raised  his  black  and  humble  hands  that  the  shackles 
might  be  struck  off,  those  hands  were  innocent  of  wrong 
against  his  helpless  charges."  But  Grady  also  implied  that  the 
Negro  had  received  too  much  attention  and  sympathy  from 
the  North.  Said  he :  "To  liberty  and  enfranchisement  is  as 
far  as  law  can  carry  the  Negro.  The  rest  must  be  left  to  con- 
science and  common  sense."  Hence  on  this  occasion  and 
others  he  asked  that  the  South  be  left  alone  in  the  handling 
of  her  grave  problem.  The  North,  a  little  tired  of  the  Negro 
question,  a  little  uncertain  also  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  recon- 
struction policy  that  it  had  forced  on  the  South,  and  if  con- 
cerned with  this  section  at  all,  interested  primarily  in  such  in- 
vestments as  it  had  there,  assented  to  this  request ;  and  in  gen- 
eral the  South  now  felt  that  it  might  order  its  political  life  in 
its  own  way. 

As  yet,  however,  the  Negro  was  not  technically  disfran- 
chised, and  at  any  moment  a  sudden  turn  of  events  might  call 
him  into  prominence.  Formal  legislation  really  followed  the 
rise  of  the  Populist  party,  which  about  1890  in  many  places  in 
the  South  waged  an  even  contest  with  the  Democrats.  It  was 
evident  that  in  such  a  struggle  the  Negro  might  still  hold  the 
balance  of  power,  and  within  the  next  few  years  a  fusion  of 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  SOUTH  289 

the  Republicans  and  the  Populists  in  North  Carolina  sent  a 
Negro,  George  H.  White,  to  Congress.  This  event  finally 
served  only  to  strengthen  the  movement  for  disfranchisement 
which  had  already  begun.  In  1890  the  constitution  of  Missis- 
sippi was  so  amended  as  to  exclude  from  the  suffrage  any 
person  who  had  not  paid  his  poll-tax  or  who  was  unable  to 
read  any  section  of  the  constitution,  or  understand  it  when 
read  to  him,  or  to  give  a  reasonable  interpretation  of  it.  The 
effect  of  the  administration  of  this  provision  was  that  in  1890 
only  8615  Negroes  out  of  147,000  of  voting  age  became  reg- 
istered. South  Carolina  amended  her  constitution  with  similar 
effect  in  1895.  In  this  state  the  population  was  almost  three- 
fifths  Negro  and  two-fifths  white.  The  franchise  of  the  Negro 
was  already  in  practical  abeyance;  but  the  problem  now  was 
to  devise  a  means  for  the  perpetuity  of  a  government  of  white 
men.  Education  was  not  popular  as  a  test,  for  by  it  many 
white  illiterates  would  be  disfranchised  and  in  any  case  it 
would  only  postpone  the  race  issue.  For  some  years  the  domi- 
nant party  had  been  engaged  in  factional  controversies,  with 
the  populist  wing  led  by  Benjamin  R.  Tillman  prevailing  over 
the  conservatives.  It  was  understood,  however,  that  each  side 
would  be  given  half  of  the  membership  of  the  convention, 
which  would  exclude  all  Negro  and  Republican  representa- 
tion, and  that  the  constitution  would  go  into  effect  without 
being  submitted  to  the  people.  Said  the  most  important  pro- 
vision: "Any  person  who  shall  apply  for  registration  after 
January  1,  1898,  if  otherwise  qualified,  shall  be  registered; 
provided  that  he  can  both  read  and  write  any  section  of  this 
constitution  submitted  to  him  by  the  registration  officer  or  can 
show  that  he  owns  and  has  paid  all  taxes  collectible  during  the 
previous  year  on  property  in  this  state  assessed  at  three  hun- 
dred dollars  or  more" — clauses  which  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say  the  registrars  regularly  interpreted  in  favor  of  white  men 
and  against  the  Negro.  In  1898  Louisiana  passed  an  amend- 
ment inventing  the  so-called  "grandfather  clause."  This  ex- 
cused from  the  operation  of  her  disfranchising  act  all  descend- 
ants of  men  who  had  voted  before  the  Civil  War,  thus  ad- 
mitting to  the  suffrage  all  white  men  who  were  illiterate  and 
without  property.    North  Carolina  in  1900,  Virginia  and  Ala- 


2Q0    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

bama  in  1901,  Georgia  in  1907,  and  Oklahoma  in  1910  in  one 
way  or  another  practically  disfranchised  the  Negro,  care  being 
taken  in  every  instance  to  avoid  any  definite  clash  with  the  Fif- 
teenth Amendment.  In  Maryland  there  have  been  several 
attempts  to  disfranchise  the  Negro  by  constitutional  amend- 
ments, one  in  1905,  another  in  1909,  and  still  another  in  191 1, 
but  all  have  failed.  About  the  intention  of  its  disfranchising 
legislation  the  South,  as  represented  by  more  than  one  spokes- 
man, was  very  frank.  Unfortunately  the  new  order  called  forth 
a  group  of  leaders — represented  by  Tillman  in  South  Carolina, 
Hoke  Smith  in  Georgia,  and  James  K.  Vardaman  in  Missis- 
sippi— who  made  a  direct  appeal  to  prejudice  and  thus  capi- 
talized the  racial  feeling  that  already  had  been  brought  to  too 
high  tension. 

Naturally  all  such  legislation  as  that  suggested  had  ulti- 
mately to  be  brought  before  the  highest  tribunal  in  the  country. 
The  test  came  over  the  following  section  from  the  Oklahoma 
law:  "No  person  shall  be  registered  as  an  elector  of  this  state 
or  be  allowed  to  vote  in  any  election  herein  unless  he  shall  be 
able  to  read  and  write  any  section  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
State  of  Oklahoma;  but  no  person  who  was  on  January  1, 
1866,  or  at  any  time  prior  thereto,  entitled  to  vote  under  any 
form  of  government,  or  who  at  any  time  resided  in  some 
foreign  nation,  and  no  lineal  descendant  of  such  person  shall 
be  denied  the  right  to  register  and  vote  because  of  his  inability 
to  so  read  and  write  sections  of  such  Constitution."  This 
enactment  the  Supreme  Court  declared  unconstitutional  in 
191 5.  The  decision  exerted  no  great  and  immediate  effect 
on  political  conditions  in  the  South ;  nevertheless  as  the  official 
recognition  by  the  nation  of  the  fact  that  the  Negro  was  not 
accorded  his  full  political  rights,  it  was  destined  to  have  far- 
reaching  effect  on  the  whole  political  fabric  of  the  section. 

When  the  era  of  disfranchisement  began  it  was  in 
large  measure  expected  by  the  South  that  with  the  practical 
elimination  of  the  Negro  from  politics  this  section  would  be- 
come wider  in  its  outlook  and  divide  on  national  issues.  Such 
has  not  proved  to  be  the  case.  Except  for  the  noteworthy 
deflection  of  Tennessee  in  the  presidential  election  of  1920, 
and  Republican  gains  in  some  counties  in  other  states,  this 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  SOUTH      291 

section  remains  just  as  "solid"  as  it  was  forty  years  ago, 
largely  of  course .  because  the  Negro,  through  education  and 
the  acquisition  of  property,  is  becoming  more  and  more  a 
potential  factor  in  politics.  Meanwhile  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  Negro  is  not  wholly  without  a  vote,  even  in  the 
South,  and  sometimes  his  power  is  used  with  telling  effect, 
as  in  the  city  of  Atlanta  in  the  spring  of  19 19,  when  he  de- 
cided in  the  negative  the  question  of  a  bond  issue.  In  the 
North  moreover — especially  in  Indiana,  Ohio,  New  Jersey, 
Illinois,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York — he  has  on  more  than 
one  occasion  proved  the  deciding  factor  in  political  affairs. 
Even  when  not  voting,  however,  he  involuntarily  wields  tre- 
mendous influence  on  the  destinies  of  the  nation,  for  even 
though  men  may  be  disfranchised,  all  are  nevertheless  counted 
in  the  allotment  of  congressmen  to  Southern  states.  This 
anomalous  situation  means  that  in  actual  practice  the  vote  of 
one  white  man  in  the  South  is  four  or  six  or  even  eight  times 
as  strong  as  that  of  a  man  in  the  North;*  and  it  directly  ac- 
counted for  the  victory  of  President  Wilson  and  the  Demo- 
crats over  the  Republicans  led  by  Charles  E.  Hughes  in  19 16. 
For  remedying  it  by  the  enforcement  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  bills  have  been  frequently  presented  in  Congress, 
but  on  these  no  action  has  been  taken. 


2.     Economic  Life:  Peonage 

Within  fifteen  years  after  the  close  of  the  war  it  was  clear/i 
that  the  Emancipation   Proclamation  was  a  blessing  to  the., 
poor  white  man  of  the  South  as  well  as  to  the  Negro.     The 
break-up  of  the  great  plantation  system  was  ultimately  to  prove  \ 
good  for  all  men  whose  slender  means  had  given  them  little 
chance  before  the  war.     At  the  same  time  came  also  the  de- 
velopment of  cotton-mills  throughout  the  South,  in  which  as 
early  as  1880  not  less  than  16,000  white  people  were  employed. 
With  the  decay  of  the  old  system  the  average  acreage  of  hold- 

*  In  1914  Kansas  and  Mississippi  each  elected  eight  members  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  but  Kansas  cast  483,683  votes  for  her  mem- 
bers, while  Mississippi  cast  only  37,185  for  hers,  less  than  one-twelfth 
as  many. 


292    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ings  in  the  South  Atlantic  states  decreased  from  352.8  in 
i860  to  108.4  in  1900.  It  was  still  not  easy  for  an  independent 
Negro  to  own  land  on  his  own  account;  nevertheless  by  as 
early  a  year  as  1874  the  Negro  farmers  had  acquired  338,769 
acres.  After  the  war  the  planters  first  tried  the  wage  system 
for  the  Negroes.  This  was  not  satisfactory — from  the  plant- 
er's standpoint  because  the  Negro  had  not  yet  developed  sta- 
bility as  a  laborer ;  from  the  Negro's  standpoint  because  while 
the  planter  might  advance  rations,  he  frequently  postponed 
the  payment  of  wages  and  sometimes  did  not  pay  at  all.  Then 
land  came  to  be  rented;  but  frequently  the  rental  was  from 
80  to  100  pounds  of  lint  cotton  an  acre  for  land  that  produced 
only  200  to  400  pounds.  In  course  of  time  the  share  system 
came  to  be  most  widely  used.  Under  this  the  tenant  fre- 
quently took  his  whole  family  into  the  cotton-field,  and  when 
the  crop  was  gathered  and  he  and  the  landlord  rode  together 
to  the  nearest  town  to  sell  it,  he  received  one-third,  one-half, 
or  two-thirds  of  the  money  according  as  he  had  or  had  not 
furnished  his  own  food,  implements,  and  horses  or  mules. 
This  system  might  have  proved  successful  if  he  had  not  had 
to  pay  exorbitant  prices  for  his  rations.  As  it  was,  if  the 
landlord  did  not  directly  furnish  foodstuffs  he  might  have 
an  understanding  with  the  keeper  of  the  country  store,  who 
frequently  charged  for  a  commodity  twice  what  it  was  worth 
in  the  open  market.  At  the  close  of  the  summer  there  was 
regularly  a  huge  bill  waiting  for  the  Negro  at  the  store;  this 
had  to  be  disposed  of  first,  and  he  always  came  out  just  a  few 
dollars  behind.  However,  the  landlord  did  not  mind  such  a 
small  matter  and  in  the  joy  of  the  harvest  might  even  advance 
a  few  dollars ;  but  the  understanding  was  always  that  the  ten- 
ant was  to  remain  on  the  land  the  next  year.  Thus  were  the 
chains  of  peonage  forged  about  him. 

At  the  same  time  there  developed  a  still  more  vicious  system. 
Immediately  after  the  war  legislation  enacted  in  the  South 
made  severe  provision  with  reference  to  vagrancy.  Negroes 
were  arrested  on  the  slightest  pretexts  and  their  labor  as  that 
of  convicts  leased  to  landowners  or  other  business  men.  When, 
a  few  years  later,  Negroes,  dissatisfied  with  the  returns  from 
their  labor  on  the  farms,  began  a  movement  to  the  cities, 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  SOUTH  293 

there  arose  a  tendency  to  make  the  vagrancy  legislation  still 
more  harsh,  so  that  at  last  a  man  could  not  stop  work  without 
technically  committing  a  crime.  Thus  in  all  its  hideousness 
developed  the  convict  lease  system. 

This  institution  and  the  accompanying  chain-gang  were  at 
variance  with  all  the  humanitarian  impulses  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Sometimes  prisoners  were  worked  in  remote  parts 
of  a  state  altogether  away  from  the  oversight  of  responsible 
officials;  if  they  stayed  in  a  prison  the  department  for  women 
was  frequently  in  plain  view  and  hearing  of  the  male  convicts, 
and  the  number  of  cubic  feet  in  a*  cell  was  only  one-fourth  of 
what  a  scientific  test  would  have  required.  Sometimes  there 
was  no  place  for  the  dressing  of  the  dead  except  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  living.  The  system  was  worst  when  the  lessee 
was  given  the  entire  charge  of  the  custody  and  discipline  of 
the  convicts,  and  even  of  their  medical  or  surgical  care.  Of 
real  attention  there  frequently  was  none,  and  reports  had 
numerous  blank  spaces  to  indicate  deaths  from  unknown 
causes.  The  sturdiest  man  could  hardly  survive  such  condi- 
tions for  more  than  ten  years.  In  Alabama  in  1880  only 
three  of  the  convicts  had  been  in  confinement  for  eight  years, 
and  only  one  for  nine.  In  Texas,  from  1875  to  1880,  the  total 
number  of  prisoners  discharged  was  1651,  while  the  number 
of  deaths  and  escapes  for  the  same  period  totalled  1608.  In 
North  Carolina  the  mortality  was  eight  times  as  great  as  in 
Sing  Sing. 

At  last  the  conscience  of  the  nation  began  to  be  heard,  and 
after  1883  there  were  remedial  measures.  However,  the  care 
of  the  prisoner  still  left  much  to  be  desired ;  and  as  the  Negro 
is  greatly  in  the  majority  among  prisoners  in  the  South,  and 
as  he  is  still  sometimes  arrested  illegally  or  on  flimsy  pretexts, 
the  whole  matter  of  judicial  and  penal  procedure  becomes  one 
of  the  first  points  of  consideration  in  any  final  settlement  of 
the  Negro  Problem.* 

*  Within  recent  years  it  has  been  thought  that  the  convict  lease  system 
and  peonage  had  practically  passed  in  the  South.  That  this  was  by  no 
means  the  case  was  shown  by  the  astonishing  revelations  from  Jasper 
County,  Georgia,  early  in  1921,  it  being  demonstrated  in  court  that  a 
white  farmer,  John  S.  Williams,  who  had  "bought  out"  Negroes  from 
the  prisons  of  Atlanta  and  Macon,  had  not  only  held  these  people  in 


294     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 
3.     Social  Life:  Proscription,  Lynching 

Meanwhile  proscription  went  forward.  Separate  and  in- 
ferior traveling  accommodations,  meager  provision  for  the 
education  of  Negro  children,  inadequate  street,  lighting  and 
water  facilities  in  most  cities  and  towns,  and  the  general  lack 
of  protection  of  life  and  property,  made  living  increasingly 
harder  for  a  struggling  people.  For  the  Negro  of  aspiration 
or  culture  every  day  became  a  long  train  of  indignities  and 
insults.  On  street  cars  he  was  crowded  into  a  few  seats,  gen- 
erally in  the  rear;  he  entered  a  railway  station  by  a  side  door; 
in  a  theater  he  might  occupy  only  a  side,  or  more  commonly 
the  extreme  rear,  of  the  second  balcony;  a  house  of  ill  fame 
might  flourish  next  to  his  own  little  home;  and  from  public 
libraries  he  was  shut  out  altogether,  except  where  a  little 
branch  was  sometimes  provided.  Every  opportunity  for  such 
self -improvement  as  a  city  might  be  expected  to  afford  him 
was  either  denied  him,  or  given  on  such  terms  as  his  self- 
respect  forced  him  to  refuse. 

Meanwhile — and  worst  of  all — he  failed  to  get  justice  in 
the  courts.  Formally  called  before  the  bar  he  knew  before- 
hand that  the  case  was  probably  already  decided  against  him. 
A  white  boy  might  insult  and  pick  a  quarrel  with  his  son,  but 
if  the  case  reached  the  court  room  the  white  boy  would  be 
freed  and  the  Negro  boy  fined  $25  or  sent  to  jail  for  three 
months.  Some  trivial  incident  involving  no  moral  responsi- 
bility whatever  on  the  Negro's  part  might  yet  cost  him  his  life. 

Lynching  grew  apace.     Generally  this  was  said  to  be  for 

peonage,  but  had  been  directly  responsible  for  the  killing  of  not  less  than 
eleven  of  them. 

However,  as  the  present  work  passes  through  the  press,  word  comes 
of  the  remarkable  efforts  of  Governor  Hugh  M.  Dorsey  for  a  more 
enlightened  public  conscience  in  his  state.  In  addition  to  special  endeavor 
for  justice  in  the  Williams  case,  he  has  issued  a  booklet  citing  with  detail 
one  hundred  and  thirty-five  cases  in  which  Negroes  have  suffered  grave 
wrong.  He  divides  his  cases  into  four  divisions:  (1)  The  Negro  lynched, 
(2)  The  Negro  held  in  peonage,  (3)  The  Negro  driven  out  by  organized 
lawlessness,  and  (4)  The  Negro  subject  to  individual  acts  of  cruelty. 
"In  some  counties,"  he  says,  "the  Negro  is  being  driven  out  as  though 
he  were  a  wild  beast.  In  others  he  is  being  held  as  a  slave.  In  others 
no  Negroes  remain.  ...  In  only  two  of  the  135  cases  cited  is  crime 
against  white  women  involved." 

For  the  more  recent  history  of  peonage  see  pp.  306,  329,  344,  360-363. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  SOUTH     295 

the  protection  of  white  womanhood;  but  statistics  certainly  did 
not  give  rape  the  prominence  that  it  held  in  the  popular  mind. 
Any  cause  of  controversy,  however  slight,  that  forced  a  Negro 
to  defend  himself  against  a  white  man  might  result  in  a  lynch- 
ing, and  possibly  in  a  burning.  In  the  period  of  1871-73  the 
number  of  Negroes  lynched  in  the  South  is  said  to  have  been 
not  more  than  n  a  year.  Between  1885  and  1915,  however, 
the  number  of  persons  lynched  in  the  country  amounted  to 
3500,  the  great  majority  being  Negroes  in  the  South.  For 
the  year  1892  alone  the  figure  was  235. 

One  fact  was  outstanding:  astonishing  progress  was  being 
made  by  the  Negro  people,  but  in  the  face  of  increasing  edu- 
cation and  culture  on  their  part,  there  was  no  diminution  of 
race  feeling.  Most  Southerners  preferred  still  to  deal  with  a 
"f~IsTegro  of  the  old  type  rather  than  with  one  who  was  neatly 
dressed,  simple  and  unaffected  in  manner,  and  ambitious  to 
have  a  good  home.  In  any  case,  however,  it  was  clear  that 
since  the  white  man  held  the  power,  upon  him  rested  primarily 
the  responsibility  of  any  adjustment.  Old  schemes  for  depor- 
tation or  colonization  in  a  separate  state  having  proved  inef- 
fective or  chimerical,  it  was  necessary  to  find  a  new  platform 
on  which  both  races  could  stand.  The  Negro  was  still  the  out- 
standing factor  in  agriculture  and  industry;  in  large  numbers 
he  had  to  live,  and  will  live,  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina, 
Mississippi  and  Texas;  and  there  should  have  been  some 
plane  on  which  he  could  reside  in  the  South  not  only  service- 
ably  but  with  justice  to  his  self-respect.  The  wealth  of  the 
New  South,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  was  won  not  only  by  the 
labor  of  black  hands  but  also  that  of  little  white  boys  and 
girls.  As  laborers  and  citizens,  real  or  potential,  both  of  these 
groups  deserved  the  most  earnest  solicitude  of  the  state,  for  it 
is  not  upon  the  riches  of  the  few  but  the  happiness  of  the  many 
that  a  nation's  greatness  depends.  Moreover  no  state  can 
build  permanently  or  surely  by  denying  to  a  half  or  a  third 
of  those  governed  any  voice  whatever  in  the  government.  If 
the  Negro  was  ignorant,  he  was  also  economically  defenseless ; 
and  it  is  neither  just  nor  wise  to  deny  to  any  man,  however 
humble,  any  real  power  for  his  legal  protection.    It  these  prin- 


296    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ciples  hold — and  we  think  they  are  in  line  with  enlightened 
conceptions  of  society — the  prosperity  of  the  New  South  was 
by  no  means  as  genuine  as  it  appeared  to  be,  and  the  disfran- 
chisement of  the  Negro,  morally  and  politically,  was  nothing 
less  than  a  crime. 


CHAPTER  XV 
"the  vale  of  tears,"  1890-1910 

1.     Current  Opinion  and  Tendencies 

In  the  two  decades  that  we  are  now  to  consider  we  find  the 
working  out  of  all  the  large  forces  mentioned  in  our  last  chap- 
ter. After  a  generation  of  striving  the  white  South  was  once 
more  thoroughly  in  control,  and  the  new  program  well  under 
way.  Predictions  for  both  a  broader  outlook  for  the  section 
as  a  whole  and  greater  care  for  the  Negro's  moral  and  intel- 
lectual advancement  were  destined  not  to  be  fulfilled;  and  the 
period  became  one  of  bitter  social  and  economic  antagonism. 

All  of  this  was  primarily  due  to  the  one  great  fallacy  on 
which  the  prosperity  of  the  New  South  was  built,  and  that 
was  that  the  labor  of  the  Negro  existed  only  for  the  good  of 
the  white  man.  To  this  one  source  may  be  traced  most  of 
the  ills  borne  by  both  white  man  and  Negro  during  the  period. , 
If  the  Negro's  labor  was  to  be  exploited,  it  was  necessary  that 
he  be  without  the  protection  of  political  power  and  that  he  be 
denied  justice  in  court.  If  he  was  to  be  reduced  to  a  peon, 
certainly  socially  he  must  be  given  a  peon's  place.  Accord- 
ingly there  developed  everywhere — in  schools,  in  places  of 
public  accommodation,  in  the  facilities  of  city  life — the  idea 
of  inferior  service  for  Negroes ;  and  an  unenlightened  prison 
system  flourished  in  all  its  hideousness.  Furthermore,  as  a 
result  of  the  vicious  economic  system,  arose  the  sinister  form 
of  the  Negro  criminal.  Here  again  the  South  begged  the 
question,  representative  writers  lamenting  the  passing  of  the 
dear  dead  days  of  slavery,  and  pointing  cynically  to  the  effects 
of  freedom  on  the  Negro.  They  failed  to  remember  in  the 
case  of  the  Negro  criminal  that  from  childhood  to  manhood — 
in  education,  in  economic  chance,  in  legal  power — they  had 
by  their  own  system  deprived  a  human  being  of  every  privilege 


298    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

that  was  due  him,  ruining  him  body  and  soul ;  and  then  they 
stood  aghast  at  the  thing  their  hands  had  made.  More  than 
that,  they  blamed  the  race  itself  for  the  character  that  now 
sometimes  appeared,  and  called  upon  thrifty,  aspiring  Negroes 
to  find  the  criminal  and  give  him  up  to  the  law.  Thrifty, 
aspiring  Negroes  wondered  what  was  the  business  of  the 
police. 

It  was  this  pitiful  failure  to  get  down  to  fundamentals  that 
characterized  the  period  and  that  made  life  all  the  more  hard 
for  those  Negroes  who  strove  to  advance.     Every  effort  was 

Cmade  to  brutalize  a  man,  and  then  he  was  blamed  for  not 
being  a  St.  Bernard.  Fortunately  before  the  period  was  over 
there  arose  not  only  clear-thinking  men  of  the  race  but  also  a 
few  white  men  who  realized  that  such  a  social  order  could  not 
last  forever. 

Early  in  the  nineties,  however,  the  pendulum  had  swung 
fully  backward,  and  the  years  from  1890  to  1895  were  in 
some  ways  the  darkest  that  the  race  has  experienced  since 
emancipation.  When  in  1892  Cleveland  was  elected  for  a 
second  term  and  the  Democrats  were  once  more  in  power,  it 
seemed  to  the  Southern  rural  Negro  that  the  conditions  of 
slavery  had  all  but  come  again.  More  and  more  the  South 
formulated  its  creed;  it  glorified  the  old  aristocracy  that  had 
flourished  and  departed,  and  definitely  it  began  to  ask  the 
North  if  it  had  not  been  right  after  all.  It  followed  of  course 
that  if  the  Old  South  had  the  real  key  to  the  problem,  the 
proper  place  of  the  Negro  was  that  of  a  slave. 

Within  two  or  three  years  there  were  so  many  important 
articles  on  the  Negro  in  prominent  magazines  and  these  were 
by  such  representative  men  that  taken  together  they  formed  a 
symposium.  In  December,  1891,  James  Bryce  wrote  in  the 
North  American  Review,  pointing  out  that  the  situation  in  the 
South  was  a  standing  breach  of  the  Constitution,  that  it  sus- 
pended the  growth  of  political  parties  and  accustomed  the 
section  to  fraudulent  evasions,  and  he  emphasized  education 
as  a  possible  remedy;  he  had  quite  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
Negro  had  little  or  no  place  in  politics.  In  January,  1892, 
a  distinguished  classical  scholar,  Basil  L.  Gildersleeve,  turned 
aside  from  linguistics  to  write  in  the  Atlantic  "The  Creed 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  299 

of  the  Old  South,"  which  article  he  afterwards  published  as 
a  special  brochure,  saying  that  it  had  been  more  widely  read 
than  anything  else  he  had  ever  written.  In  April,  Thomas 
Nelson  Page  in  the  North  American  contended  that  in  spite 
of  the  $5,000,000  spent  on  the  education  of  the  Negro  in 
Virginia  between  1870  and  1890  the  race  had  retrograded  or 
not  greatly  improved,  and  in  fact  that  the  Negro  "did  not 
possess  the  qualities  to  raise  himself  above  slavery."  Later 
in  the  same  year  he  published  The  Old  South.  In  the  same 
month  Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  writing  in  the  Arena,  contended 
that  in  view  of  its  mortality  statistics  the  Negro  race  would 
soon  die  out.*  Also  in  April,  1892,  Henry  Watterson  wrote 
of  the  Negro  in  the  Chautauquan,  recalling  the  facts  that  the 
era  of  political  turmoil  had  been  succeeded  by  one  of  reaction 
and  violence,  and  that  by  one  of  exhaustion  and  peace;  but 
with  all  his  insight  he  ventured  no  constructive  suggestion, 
thinking  it  best  for  everybody  "simply  to  be  quiet  for  a  time." 
Early  in  1893  John  C.  Wycliffe,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  New 
Orleans,  writing  in  the  Forum,  voiced  the  desires  of  many  in 
asking  for  a  repeal  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment;  and  in  Octo- 
ber, Bishop  Atticus  G.  Haygood,  writing  in  the  same  period- 
ical of  a  recent  and  notorious  lynching,  said,  "It  was  horrible 
to  torture  the  guilty  wretch ;  the  burning  was  an  act  of  insan- 
ity. But  had  the  dismembered  form  of  his  victim  been  the 
dishonored  body  of  my  baby,  I  might  also  have  gone  into 
an  insanity  that  might  have  ended  never."  Again  and  again 
was  there  the  lament  that  the  Negroes  of  forty  years  after 
were  both  morally  and  intellectually  inferior  to  their  ante- 
bellum ancestors;  and  if  college  professors  and  lawyers  and 
ministers  of  the  Gospel  wrote  in  this  fashion  one  could  not 
wonder  that  the  politician  made  capital  of  choice  propaganda. 

In  this  chorus  of  dispraise  truth  struggled  for  a  hearing, 
but  then  as  now  traveled  more  slowly  than  error.     In  the 

*  In  1896  this  paper  entered  into  an  elaborate  study,  Race  Traits  and 
Tendencies  of  the  American  Negro,  a  publication  of  the  American 
Economic  Association.  In  this  Hoffman  contended  at  length  that  the 
race  was  not  only  not  holding  its  own  in  population,  but  that  it  was  also 
astonishingly  criminal  and  was  steadily  losing  economically.  His  work 
was  critically  studied  and  its  fallacies  exposed  in  the  Nation,  April  1, 
1897. 


300    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

North  American  for  July,  1892,  Frederick  Douglass  wrote 
vigorously  of  "Lynch  Law  in  the  South."  In  the  same  month 
George  W.  Cable  answered  affirmatively  and  with  emphasis 
the  question,  "Does  the  Negro  pay  for  his  education?"  He 
showed  that  in  Georgia  in  1889-90  the  colored  schools  did  not 
really  cost  the  white  citizens  a  cent,  and  that  in  the  other 
Southern  states  the  Negro  was  also  contributing  his  full  share 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  schools.  In  June  of  the  same  year 
William  T.  Harris,  Commissioner  of  Education,  wrote  in 
truly  statesmanlike  fashion  in  the  Atlantic  of  "The  Education 
of  the  Negro."  Said  he :  "With  the  colored  people  all  educated 
in  schools  and  become  a  reading  people  interested  in  the  daily 
newspaper;  with  all  forms  of  industrial  training  accessible  to 
them,  and  the  opportunity  so  improved  that  every  form  of 
mechanical  and  manufacturing  skill  has  its  quota  of  colored 
working  men  and  women ;  with  a  colored  ministry  educated  in 
a  Christian  theology  interpreted  in  a  missionary  spirit,  and 
finding  its  auxiliaries  in  modern  science  and  modern  literature ; 
with  these  educational  essentials  the  Negro  problem  for  the 
South  will  be  solved  without  recourse  to  violent  measures  of 
any  kind,  whether  migration,  or  disfranchisement,  or  ostra- 
cism." In  December,  1893,  Walter  H.  Page,  writing  in  the 
Forum  of  lynching  under  the  title,  "The  Last  Hold  of  the 
Southern  Bully,"  said  that  "the  great  danger  is  not  in  the  first 
violation  of  law,  nor  in  the  crime  itself,  but  in  the  danger  that 
Southern  public  sentiment  under  the  stress  of  this  phase  of 
the  race  problem  will  lose  the  true  perspective  of  civilization" ; 
and  L.  E.  Bleckley,  Chief  Justice  of  Georgia,  spoke  in  similar 
vein.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  country,  while  occasionally 
indignant  at  some  atrocity,  had  quite  decided  not  to  touch  the 
Negro  question  for  a  while;  and  when  in  the  spring  of  1892 
some  representative  Negroes  protested  without  avail  to  Presi- 
dent Harrison  against  the  work  of  mobs,  the  Review  of  Re- 
views but  voiced  the  drift  of  current  opinion  when  it  said: 
"As  for  the  colored  men  themselves,  their  wisest  course  would 
be  to  cultivate  the  best  possible  relations  with  the  most  upright 
and  intelligent  of  their  white  neighbors,  and  for  some  time 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS/'  1890-1910  301 

to  come  to  forget  all  about  politics  and  to  strive  mightily  for 
industrial  and  educational  progress."  * 

It  is  not  strange  that  under  the  circumstances  we  have  now 
to  record  such  discrimination,  crime,  and  mob  violence  as 
can  hardly  be  paralleled  in  the  whole  of  American  history. 
The  Negro  was  already  down;  he  was  now  to  be  trampled 
upon.  When  in  the  spring  of  1892  some  members  of  the  race 
in  the  lowlands  of  Mississippi  lost  all  they  had  by  the  floods 
and  the  Federal  Government  was  disposed  to  send  relief,  the 
state  government  protested  against  such  action  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  keep  the  Negroes  from  accepting  the  terms  of- 
fered by  the  white  planters.  In  Louisiana  in  1895  a  Negro 
presiding  elder  reported  to  the  Southwestern  Christian  Advo- 
cate that  he  had  lost  a  membership  of  a  hundred  souls,  the 
people  being  compelled  to  leave  their  crops  and  move  away 
within  ten  days. 

In  1 89 1  the  jail  at  Omaha  was  entered  and  a  Negro  taken 
out  and  hanged  to  a  lamp-post.  On  February  27,  1892,  at 
Jackson,  La.,  where  there  was  a  pound  party  for  the  minister 
at  the  Negro  Baptist  church,  a  crowd  of  white  men  gathered, 
shooting  revolvers  and  halting  the  Negroes  as  they  passed. 
Most  of  the  people  were  allowed  to  go  on,  but  after  a  while 
the  sport  became  furious  and  two  men  were  fatally  shot.  About 
the  same  time,  and  in  the  same  state,  at  Rayville,  a  Negro  girl 
of  fifteen  was  taken  from  a  jail  by  a  mob  and  hanged  to  a  tree. 
In  Texarkana,  Ark.,  a  Negro  who  had  outraged  a  farmer's 
wife  was  captured  and  burned  alive,  the  injured  woman  her- 
self being  compelled  to  light  the  fire.  Just  a  few  days  later, 
in  March,  a  constable  in  Memphis  in  attempting  to  arrest  a 
Negro  was  killed.  Numerous  arrests  followed,  and  at  night 
a  mob  went  to  the  jail,  gained  easy  access,  and,  having  seized 
three  well-known  Negroes  who  were  thought  to  have  been 
leaders  in  the  killing,  lynched  them,  the  whole  proceeding 
being  such  a  flagrant  violation  of  law  that  it  has  not  yet 
been  forgotten  by  the  older  Negro  citizens  of  this  important 
city.  On  February  1,  1893,  at  Paris,  Texas,  after  one  of  the 
most  brutal  crimes  occurred  one  of  the  most  horrible  lynch- 

*  June,  1892,  p.  526. 


302    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ings  on  record.  Henry  Smith,  the  Negro,  who  seems  to  have 
harbored  a  resentment  against  a  policeman  of  the  town  be- 
cause of  ill-treatment  that  he  had  received,  seized  the  officer's 
three-year-old  child,  outraged  her,  and  then  tore  her  body  to 
pieces.  He  was  tortured  by  the  child's  father,  her  uncles,  and 
her  fifteen-year-old  brother,  his  eyes  being  put  out  with  hot 
irons  before  he  was  burned.  His  stepson,  who  had  refused 
to  tell  where  he  could  be  found,  was  hanged  and  his  body 
riddled  with  bullets.  Thus  the  lynchings  went  on,  the  victims 
sometimes  being  guilty  of  the  gravest  crimes,  but  often  also 
perfectly  innocent  people.  In  February,  1893,  the  average 
was  very  nearly  one  a  day.  At  the  same  time  injuries  inflicted 
on  the  Negro  were  commonly  disregarded  altogether.  Thus 
at  Dickson,  Tenn.,  a  young  white  man  lost  forty  dollars.  A 
fortune-teller  told  him  that  the  money  had  been  taken  by  a 
woman  and  gave  a  description  that  seemed  to  fit  a  young 
colored  woman  who  had  worked  in  the  home  of  a  relative. 
Half  a  dozen  men  then  went  to  the  home  of  the  young  woman 
and  outraged  her,  her  mother,  and  also  another  woman  who 
was  in  the  house.  At  the  very  close  of  1894,  in  Brooks  County, 
Ga.,  after  a  Negro  named  Pike  had  killed  a  white  man  with 
whom  he  had  a  quarrel,  seven  Negroes  were  lynched  after 
the  real  murderer  had  escaped.  Any  relative  or  other  Negro 
who,  questioned,  refused  to  tell  of  the  whereabouts  of  Pike, 
whether  he  knew  of  the  same  or  not,  was  shot  in  his  tracks, 
one  man  being  shot  before  he  had  chance  to  say  anything  at 
all.  Meanwhile  the  White  Caps  or  "Regulators"  took  charge 
of  the  neighboring  counties,  terrifying  the  Negroes  every- 
where; and  in  the  trials  that  resulted  the  state  courts  broke 
down  altogether,  one  judge  in  despair  giving  up  the  holding 
of  court  as  useless. 

Meanwhile  discrimination  of  all  sorts  went  forward.  On 
May  29,  1895,  moved  by  the  situation  at  the  Orange  Park 
Academy,  the  state  of  Florida  approved  "An  Act  to  Prohibit 
White  and  Colored  Youth  from  being  Taught  in  the  same 
Schools."  Said  one  section :  "It  shall  be  a  penal  offense  for 
any  individual  body  of  inhabitants,  corporation,  or  associa- 
tion to  conduct  within  this  State  any  school  of  any  grade, 
public,  private,  or  parochial,  wherein  white  persons  and  Ne- 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS/'  1890-1910  303 

groes  shall  be  instructed  or  boarded  within  the  same  building, 
or  taught  in  the  same  class  or  at  the  same  time  by  the  same 
teacher."  Religious  organizations  were  not  to  be  left  behind 
in  such  action;  and  when  before  the  meeting  of  the  Baptist 
Young  People's  Union  in  Baltimore  a  letter  was  sent  to 
the  secretary  of  the  organization  and  the  editor  of 
the  Baptist  Union,  in  behalf  of  the  Negroes,  who  the  year 
before  had  not  been  well  treated  at  Toronto,  he  sent  back  an 
evasive  answer,  saying  that  the  policy  of  his  society  was  to 
encourage  local  unions  to  affiliate  with  their  own  churches. 

More  grave  than  anything  else  was  the  formal  denial 
(of  the  Negro's  political  rights.  As  we  have  seen,  South 
Carolina  in  1895  followed  Mississippi  in  the  disfranchising 
program  and  within  the  next  fifteen  years  most  of  the  other 
Southern  states  did  likewise.  With  the  Negro  thus  deprived 
of  any  genuine  political  voice,  all  sorts  of  social  and  economic 
injustice  found  greater  license. 

2.     Industrial  Education:  Booker  T.  Washington 

Such  were  the  tendencies  of  life  in  the  South  as  affecting 
the  Negro  thirty  years  after  emancipation.  In  September, 
1895,  a  rising  educator  of  the  race  attracted  national  attention 
by  a  remarkable  speech  that  he  made  at  the  Cotton  States 
Exposition  in  Atlanta.  Said  Booker  T.  Washington:  "To 
those  of  my  race  who  depend  on  bettering  their  condition  in 
a  foreign  land,  or  who  underestimate  the  importance  of  culti- 
vating friendly  relations  with  the  Southern  white  man  who  is 
their  next  door  neighbor,  I  would  say,  'Cast  down  your  bucket 
where  you  are' — cast  it  down  in  making  friends  in  every  manly 
way  of  the  people  of  all  races  by  whom  we  are  surrounded. 
.  .  .  To  those  of  the  white  race  who  look  to  the  incoming 
of  those  of  foreign  birth  and  strange  tongue  and  habits  for 
the  prosperity  of  the  South,  were  I  permitted  I  would  repeat 
what  I  say  to  my  own  race,  'Cast  down  your  bucket  where  you 
are.'  Cast  it  down  among  8,000,000  Negroes  whose  habits 
you  know,  whose  fidelity  and  love  you  have  tested  in  days 
when  to  have  proved  treacherous  meant  the  ruin  of  your  fire- 


304    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

sides.  ...  In  all  things  that  are  purely  social  we  can  be  as 
separate  as  the  fingers,  yet  one  as  the  hand  in  all  things  essen- 
tial to  mutual  progress." 

The  message  that  Dr.  Washington  thus  enunciated  he  had 
already  given  in  substance  the  previous  spring  in  an  address 
at  Fisk  University,  and  even  before  then  his  work  at  Tuskegee 
Institute  had  attracted  attention.*  The  Atlanta  Exposition 
simply  gave  him  the  great  occasion  that  he  needed;  and  he 
was  now  to  proclaim  the  new  word  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  Among  the  hundreds  of  addresses  that 
he  afterwards  delivered,  especially  important  were  those  at 
Harvard  University  in  1896,  at  the  Chicago  Peace  Jubilee  in 
1898,  and  before  the  National  Education  Association  in  St. 
Louis  in  1904.  Again  and  again  in  these  speeches  one  comes 
upon  such  striking  sentences  as  the  following:  "Freedom  can 
never  be  given.  It  must  be  purchased. "  f  "The  race,  like  the 
individual,  that  makes  itself  indispensable,  has  solved  most 
of  its  problems."  f  "As  a  race  there  are  two  things  we  must 
learn  to  do — one  is  to  put  brains  into  the  common  occupations 
of  life,  and  the  other  is  to  dignify  common  labor."  %  "Igno- 
rant and  inexperienced,  it  is  not  strange  that  in  the  first  years 
of  our  new  life  we  began  at  the  top  instead  of  at  the  bottom; 
that  a  seat  in  Congress  or  the  State  Legislature  was  worth 
more  than  real  estate  or  industrial  skill."  §  "The  opportunity 
to  earn  a  dollar  in  a  factory  just  now  is  worth  infinitely  more 
than  the  opportunity  to  spend  a  dollar  in  an  opera  house."  § 
One  of  the  most  vital  questions  that  touch  our  American  life 
is  how  to  bring  the  strong,  wealthy,  and  learned  into  helpful 
contact  with  the  poorest,  most  ignorant,  and  humblest,  and  at 
the  same  time  make  the  one  appreciate  the  vitalizing,  strength- 
ening influence  of  the  other."  ||  "There  is  no  defense  or  secur- 
ity for  any  of  us  except  in  the  highest  intelligence  and  develop- 
ment of  all."  § 

The  time  was  ripe  for  a  new  leader.     Frederick  Douglass 

*  See  article  by  Albert  Shaw,  "Negro  Progress  on  the  Tuskegee 
Plan,"  in  Review  of  Reviews,  April,  1804. 

t  Speech  before  N.  E.  A.,  in  St.  Louis,  June  30,  1904. 
$  Speech  at  Fisk  University,  1895. 
§  Speech  at  Atlanta  Exposition,  September  18,  1805. 
||  Speech  at  Harvard  University,  June  24,  1896. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  305 

had  died  in  February,  1895.  ^n  his  later  years  he  had  more 
than  once  lost  hold  on  the  heart  of  his  people,  as  when  he  op- 
posed the  Negro  Exodus  or  seemed  not  fully  in  sympathy 
with  the  religious  convictions  of  those  who  looked  to  him. 
At  his  passing,  however,  the  race  remembered  only  his  early 
service  and  his  old  magnificence,  and  to  a  striving  people  his 
death  seemed  to  make  still  darker  the  gathering  gloom.  Com- 
ing when  he  did,  Booker  T.  Washington  was  thoroughly  in 
line  with  the  materialism  of  his  age ;  he  answered  both  an  eco- 
nomic and  an  educational  crisis.  He  also  satisfied  the  South 
of  the  new  day  by  what  he  had  to  say  about  social  equality. 

The  story  of  his  work  reads  like  a  romance,  and  he  himself 
has  told  it  better  than  any  one  else  ever  can.  He  did  not  claim 
the  credit  for  the  original  idea  of  industrial  education;  that 
he  gave  to  General  Armstrong,  and  it  was  at  Hampton  that 
he  himself  had  been  nurtured.  What  was  needed,  however, 
was  for  some  one  to  take  the  Hampton  idea  down  to  the  cotton 
belt,  interpret  the  lesson  for  the  men  and  women  digging  in 
the  ground,  and  generally  to  put  the  race  in  line  with  the  coun- 
try's industrial  development.  This  was  what  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington undertook  to  do. 

He  reached  Tuskegee  early  in  June,  1881.  July  4  was  the 
date  set  for  the  opening  of  the  school  in  the  little  shanty  and 
church  which  had  been  secured  for  its  accommodation.  On  the 
morning  of  this  day  thirty  students  reported  for  admission. 
The  greater  number  were  school-teachers  and  some  were  nearly 
forty  years  of  age.  Just  about  three  months  after  the  opening 
of  the  school  there  was  offered  for  sale  an  old  and  abandoned 
plantation  a  mile  from  Tuskegee  on  which  the  mansion  had 
been  burned.  All  told  the  place  seemed  to  be  just  the  location 
needed  to  make  the  work  effective  and  permanent.  The  price 
asked  was  five  hundred  dollars,  the  owner  requiring  the  imme- 
diate payment  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  the  remaining 
two  hundred  and  fifty  to  be  paid  within  a  year.  In  his  diffi- 
culty Mr.  Washington  wrote  to  General  J.  F.  B.  Marshall, 
treasurer  of  Hampton  Institute,  placing  the  matter  before  him 
and  asking  for  the  loan  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
General  Marshall  replied  that  he  had  no  authority  to  lend 
money  belonging  to  Hampton  Institute,   but  that  he  would 


306    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

gladly  advance  the  amount  needed  from  his  personal  funds. 
Toward  the  paying  of  this  sum  the  assisting  teacher,  Olivia  A. 
Davidson  (afterwards  Mrs.  Washington),  helped  heroically. 
Her  first  effort  was  made  by  holding  festivals  and  suppers,  but 
she  also  canvassed  the  families  in  the  town  of  Tuskegee,  and 
the  white  people  as  well  as  the  Negroes  helped  her.  "It  was 
often  pathetic,"  said  the  principal,  "to  note  the  gifts  of  the 
older  colored  people,  many  of  whom  had  spent  their  best  days 
in  slavery.  Sometimes  they  would  give  five  cents,  sometimes 
twenty-five  cents.  Sometimes  the  contribution  was  a  quilt, 
or  a  quantity  of  sugarcane.  I  recall  one  old  colored  woman, 
who  was  about  seventy  years  of  age,  who  came  to  see  me 
when  we  were  raising  money  to  pay  for  the  farm.  She  hobbled 
into  the  room  where  I  was,  leaning  on  a  cane.  She  was  clad  in 
rags,  but  they  were  clean.  She  said,  'Mr.  Washington,  God 
knows  I  spent  de  bes'  days  of  my  life  in  slavery.  God  knows 
Ps  ignorant  an'  poor;  but  I  knows  what  you  an'  Miss  David- 
son is  tryin'  to  do.  I  knows  you  is  tryin'  to  make  better  men 
an'  better  women  for  de  colored  race.  I  ain't  got  no  money, 
but  I  wants  you  to  take  dese  six  eggs,  what  Fs  been  savin' 
up,  an'  I  wants  you  to  put  dese  six  eggs  into  de  eddication  of 
dese  boys  an'  gals.'  Since  the  work  at  Tuskegee  started," 
added  the  speaker,  "it  has  been  my  privilege  to  receive  many 
gifts  for  the  benefit  of  the  institution,  but  never  any,  I  think, 
that  touched  me  as  deeply  as  this  one." 

It  was  early  in  the  history  of  the  school  that  Mr.  Washing- 
ton conceived  the  idea  of  extension  work.  The  Tuskegee 
Conferences  began  in  February,  1892.  To  the  first  meeting 
came  five  hundred  men,  mainly  farmers,  and  many  woman. 
Outstanding  was  the  discussion  of  the  actual  terms  on  which 
most  of  the  men  were  living  from  year  to  year.  A  mortgage 
was  given  on  the  cotton  crop  before  it  was  planted,  and  to  the 
mortgage  was  attached  a  note  which  waived  all  right  to  ex- 
emptions under  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  state  of  Ala- 
bama or  of  any  other  state  to  which  the  tenant  might  move. 
Said  one :  "The  mortgage  ties  you  tighter  than  any  rope  and 
a  waive  note  is  a  consuming  fire."  Said  another:  "The  waive 
note  is  good  for  twenty  years  and  when  you  sign  one  you  must 
either  pay  out  or  die  out."    Another:  "When  you  sign  a  waive 


'THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  307 

note  you  just  cross  your  hands  behind  you  and  go  to  the  mer- 
chant and  say,  'Here,  tie  me  and  take  all  I've  got.'  "  All  agreed 
that  the  people  mortgaged  more  than  was  necessary,  to  buy 
sewing  machines  (which  sometimes  were  not  used),  expensive 
clocks,  great  family  Bibles,  or  other  things  easily  dispensed 
with.  Said  one  man:  "My  people  want  all  they  can  get  on 
credit,  not  thinking  of  the  day  of  settlement.  We  must  learn 
to  bore  with  a  small  augur  first.  The  black  man  totes  a  heavy 
bundle,  and  when  he  puts  it  down  there  is  a  plow,  a  hoe,  and 
ignorance." 

It  was  to  people  such  as  these  that  Booker  T.  Washington 
brought  hope,  and  serving  them  he  passed  on  to  fame.  Within 
a  few  years  schools  on  the  plan  of  Tuskegee  began  to  spring 
up  all  over  the  South,  at  Denmark,  at  Snow  Hill,  at  Utica, 
and  elsewhere.  In  1900  the  National  Negro  Business  League 
began  its  sessions,  giving  great  impetus  to  the  establishment 
of  banks,  stores,  and  industrial  enterprises  throughout  the 
country,  and  especially  in  the  South.  Much  of  this  progress 
would  certainly  have  been  realized  if  the  Business  League  had 
never  been  organized;  but  every  one  granted  that  in  all  the 
development  the  genius  of  the  leader  at  Tuskegee  was  the  chief 
force.  About  his  greatness  and  his  very  definite  contribution 
there  could  be  no  question. 


3.     Individual  Achievement :  The  Spanish- American  War 

It  happened  that  just  at  the  time  that  Booker  T.  Washington 
was  advancing  to  great  distinction,  three  or  four  other  indi- 
viduals were  reflecting  special  credit  on  the  race.  One  of 
these  was  a  young  scholar,  W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  who  after 
a  college  career  at  Fisk  continued  his  studies  at  Harvard  and 
Berlin  and  finally  took  the  Ph.D.  degree  at  Harvard  in  1895. 
There  had  been  sound  scholars  in  the  race  before  DuBois,  but 
generally  these  had  rested  on  attainment  in  the  languages  or 
mathematics,  and  most  frequently  they  had  expressed  them- 
selves in  rather  philosophical  disquisition.  \JJere,  however, 
was  a  thorough  student  of  economics,  and  one  who  was  able 
to  attack  the  problems  of  his  people  and  meet  opponents  on  the 


308    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

basis  of  modern  science.  He  was  destined  to  do  great  good, 
and  the  race  was  proud  of  him. 

In  1896  also  an  authentic  young  poet  who  had  wrestled  with 
poverty  and  doubt  at  last  gained  a  hearing.  After  completing 
the  course  at  a  high  school  in  Dayton,  Paul  Laurence  Dunbar 
ran  an  elevator  for  four  dollars  a  week,  and  then  he  peddled 
from  door  to  door  two  little  volumes  of  verse  that  had  been 
privately  printed.  William  Dean  Howells  at  length  gave  him 
a  helping  hand,  and  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.  published  Lyrics  of 
Lowly  Life.  Dunbar  wrote  both  in  classic  English  and  in  the 
dialect  that  voiced  the  humor  and  the  pathos  of  the  life  of  those 
for  whom  he  spoke.  What  was  not  at  the  time  especially  ob- 
served was  that  in  numerous  poems  he  suggested  the  discontent 
with  the  age  in  which  he  lived  and  thus  struck  what  later  years 
were  to  prove  an  important  keynote.  After  he  had  waited  and 
struggled  so  long,  his  success  was  so  great  that  it  became  a 
vogue,  and  imitators  sprang  up  everywhere.  He  touched  the 
heart  of  his  people  and  the  race  loved  him. 

By  1896  also  word  began  to  come  of  a  Negro  American 
painter,  Henry  O.  Tanner,  who  was  winning  laurels  in  Paris. 
At  the  same  time  a  beautiful  singer,  Mme.  Sissieretta  Jones, 
on  the  concert  stage  was  giving  new  proof  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  Negro  as  an  artist  in  song.  In  the  previous  decade  Mme. 
Marie  Selika,  a  cultured  vocalist  of  the  first  rank,  had  delight- 
ed audiences  in  both  America  and  Europe,  and  in  1887  had 
appeared  Flora  Batson,  a  ballad  singer  whose  work  at  its  best 
was  of  the  sort  that  sends  an  audience  into  the  wildest  enthu- 
siasm. In  1894,  moreover,  Harry  T.  Burleigh,  competing 
against  sixty  candidates,  became  baritone  soloist  at  St.  George's 
Episcopal  Church,  New  York,  and  just  a  few  years  later  he 
was  to  be  employed  also  at  Temple  Emanu-El,  the  Fifth  Ave- 
nue Jewish  synagogue.  From  abroad  also  came  word  of  a 
brilliant  musician,  Samuel  Coleridge-Taylor,  who  by  his  "Hia- 
watha's Wedding-Feast"  in  1898  leaped  into  the  rank  of  the 
foremost  living  English  composers.  On  the  more  popular 
stage  appeared  light  musical  comedy,  intermediate  between  the 
old  Negro  minstrelsy  and  a  genuine  Negro  drama,  the  repre- 
sentative companies  becoming  within  the  next  few  years  those 
of  Cole  and  Johnson,  and  Williams  and  Walker. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  309 

Especially  outstanding  in  the  course  of  the  decade,  however, 
was  the  work  of  the  Negro  soldier  in  the  Spanish-American 
War.  There  were  at  the  time  four  regiments  of  colored  regu- 
lars in  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  the  Twenty-fourth 
Infantry,  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry,  the  Ninth  Cavalry,  and 
the  Tenth  Cavalry.  When  the  war  broke  out  President  Mc- 
Kinley  sent  to  Congress  a  message  recommending  the  enlist- 
ment of  more  regiments  of  Negroes.  Congress  failed  to  act; 
nevertheless  colored  troops  enlisted  in  the  volunteer  service  in 
Massachusetts,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Kansas,  Ohio,  North  Caro- 
lina, Tennessee,  and  Virginia.  The  Eighth  Illinois  was  of- 
ficered throughout  by  Negroes,  J.  R.  Marshall  commanding; 
and  Major  Charles  E.  Young,  a  West  Point  graduate,  was  in 
charge  of  the  Ohio  battalion.  The  very  first  regiment  ordered 
to  the  front  when  the  war  broke  out  was  the  Twenty- fourth 
Infantry;  and  Negro  troops  were  conspicuous  in  the  fighting 
around  Santiago.  They  figured  in  a  brilliant  charge  at  Las 
Quasimas  on  June  214,  and  in  an  attack  on  July  1  upon  a  gar- 
rison at  El  Caney  (a  position  of  importance  for  securing  pos- 
session of  a  line  of  hills  along  the  San  Juan  River,  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  Santiago)  the  First  Volunteer  Cavalry  (Colonel 
Roosevelt's  "Rough  Riders")  was  practically  saved  from  anni- 
hilation by  the  gallant  work  of  the  men  of  the  Tenth  Cavalry. 
Fully  as  patriotic,  though  in  another  way,  was  a  deed  of  the 
Twenty-fourth  Infantry.  Learning  that  General  Miles  desired 
a  regiment  for  the  cleaning  of  a  yellow  fever  hospital  and  the 
nursing  of  some  victims  of  the  disease,  the  Twenty-fourth 
volunteered  its  services  and  by  one  day's  work  so  cleared  away 
the  rubbish  and  cleaned  the  camp  that  the  number  of  cases  was 
greatly  reduced.  Said  the  Review  of  Reviews  in  editorial 
comment :  *  "One  of  the  most  gratifying  incidents  of  the  Span- 
ish War  has  been  the  enthusiasm  that  the  colored  regiments 
of  the  regular  army  have  aroused  throughout  the  whole  coun- 
try. Their  fighting  at  Santiago  was  magnificent.  The  Negro 
soldiers  showed  excellent  discipline,  the  highest  qualities  of 
personal  bravery,  very  superior  physical  endurance,  unfailing 
good  temper,  and  the  most  generous  disposition  toward  all 

*  October,  1898,  p.  387. 


310    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

comrades  in  arms,  whether  white  or  black.  Roosevelt's  Rough 
Riders  have  come  back  singing  the  praises  of  the  colored 
troops.  There  is  not  a  dissenting  voice  in  the  chorus  of  praise. 
.  .  .  Men  who  can  fight  for  their  country  as  did  these  colored 
troops  ought  to  have  their  full  share  of  gratitude  and  honor.'' 

4.     Mob  Violence;  Election  Troubles;  The  Atlanta  Massacre 

After  two  or  three  years  of  comparative  quiet — but  only 
comparative  quiet — mob  violence  burst  forth  about  the  turn 
of  the  century  with  redoubled  intensity.  In  a  large  way  this 
was  simply  a  result  of  the  campaigns  for  disfranchisement 
that  in  some  of  the  Southern  states  were  just  now  getting 
under  way;  but  charges  of  assault  and  questions  of  labor  also 
played  a  part.  In  some  places  people  who  were  innocent  of 
any  charge  whatever  were  attacked,  and  so  many  were  killed 
that  sometimes  it  seemed  that  the  law  had  broken  down  alto- 
gether. Not  the  least  interesting  development  of  these  troublous 
years  was  that  in  some  cases  as  never  before  Negroes  began 
to  fight  with  their  backs  to  the  wall,  and  thus  at  the  very  close 
of  the  century — at  the  end  of  a  bitter  decade  and  the  beginning 
of  one  still  more  bitter — a  new  factor  entered  into  the  problem, 
one  that  was  destined  more  and  more  to  demand  consideration. 

On  one  Sunday  toward  the  close  of  October,  1898,  the  coun- 
try recorded  two  race  wars,  one  lynching,  two  murders,  one  of 
which  was  expected  to  lead  to  a  lynching,  with  a  total  of  ten 
Negroes  killed  and  four  wounded  and  four  white  men  killed 
and  seven  wounded.  The  most  serious  outbreak  was  in  the 
state  of  Mississippi,  and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  not  one 
single  case  was  there  any  question  of  rape. 

November  was  made  red  by  election  troubles  in  both  North 
and  South  Carolina.  In  the  latter  state,  at  Phoenix,  in  Green- 
wood County,  on  November  8  and  for  some  days  thereafter, 
the  Tolberts,  a  well-known  family  of  white  Republicans,  were 
attacked  by  mobs  and  barely  escaped  alive.  R.  R.  Tolbert  was 
a  candidate  for  Congress  and  also  chairman  of  the  Republican 
state  committee.  John  R.  Tolbert,  his  father,  collector  of  the 
port  of  Charleston,  had  come  home  to  vote  and  was  at  one  of 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  311 

the  polling-places  in  the  county.  Thomas  Tolbert  at  Phoenix 
was  taking  the  affidavits  of  the  Negroes  who  were  not  permit- 
ted to  vote  for  his  brother  in  order  that  later  there  might  be 
ground  on  which  to  contest  the  election.  While  thus  engaged 
he  was  attacked  by  Etheridge,  the  Democratic  manager  of  an- 
other precinct.  The  Negroes  came  to  Tolbert's  defense,  and 
in  the  fight  that  followed  Etheridge  was  killed  and  Tolbert 
wounded.  John  Tolbert,  coming  up,  was  filled  with  buckshot, 
and  a  younger  member  of  the  family  was  also  hurt.  The 
Negroes  were  at  length  overpowered  and  the  Tolberts  forced 
to  flee.  All  told  it  appears  that  two  white  men  and  about 
twelve  Negroes  lost  their  lives  in  connection  with  the  trouble, 
six  of  the  latter  being  lynched  on  account  of  the  death  of 
Etheridge. 

In  North  Carolina  in  1894  the  Republicans  by  combining 
with  the  Populists  had  secured  control  of  the  state  legislature. 
In  1896  the  Democrats  were  again  outvoted,  Governor  Russell 
being  elected  by  a  plurality  of  9000.  A  considerable  number 
of  local  offices  was  in  the  hands  of  Negroes,  who  had  the  back- 
ing of  the  Governor,  the  legislature,  and  the  Supreme  Court 
as  well.  Before  the  November  elections  in  1898  the  Democrats 
in  Wilmington  announced  their  determination  to  prevent  Ne- 
groes from  holding  office  in  the  city.  Especially  had  they 
been  made  angry  by  an  editorial  in  a  local  Negro  paper,  the 
Record,  in  which,  under  date  August  18,  the  editor,  Alex.  L. 
Manly,  starting  with  a  reference  to  a  speaker  from  Georgia, 
who  at  the  Agricultural  Society  meeting  at  Tybee  had  advo- 
cated lynching  as  an  extreme  measure,  said  that  she  "lost  sight 
of  the  basic  principle  of  the  religion  of  Christ  in  her  plea  for 
one  class  of  people  as  against  another,"  and  continued :  "The 
papers  are  filled  with  reports  of  rapes  of  white  women,  and  the 
subsequent  lynching  of  the  alleged  rapists.  The  editors  pour 
forth  volleys  of  aspersions  against  all  Negroes  because  of  the 
few  who  may  be  guilty.  If  the  papers  and  speakers  of  the 
other  race  would  condemn  the  commission  of  crime  because 
it  is  crime  and  not  try  to  make  it  appear  that  the  Negroes  were 
the  only  criminals,  they  would  find  their  strongest  allies  in  the 
intelligent  Negroes  themselves,  and  together  the  whites  and 
blacks  would  root  the  evil  out  of  both  races.  .  .  .  Our  experi- 


312     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ence  among  poor  white  people  in  the  country  teaches  us  that  the 
women  of  that  race  are  not  any  more  particular  in  the  matter 
of  clandestine  meetings  with  colored  men  than  are  the  white 
men  with  colored  women.  Meetings  of  this  kind  go  on  for 
some  time  until  the  woman's  infatuation  or  the  man's  boldness 
brings  attention  to  them  and  the  man  is  lynched  for  rape." 
In  reply  to  this  the  speaker  quoted  in  a  signed  statement 
said :  "When  the  Negro  Manly  attributed  the  crime  of  rape 
to  intimacy  between  Negro  men  and  white  women  of  the 
South,  the  slanderer  should  be  made  to  fear  a  lyncher's  rope 
rather  than  occupy  a  place  in  New  York  newspapers" — a 
method  of  argument  that  was  unfortunately  all  too  common 
in  the  South.  As  election  day  approached  the  Democrats 
sought  generally  to  intimidate  the  Negroes,  the  streets  and 
roads  being  patrolled  by  men  wearing  red  shirts.  Election  day, 
however,  passed  without  any  disturbance ;  but  on  the  next  day 
there  was  a  mass  meeting  of  white  citizens,  at  which  there  were 
adopted  resolutions  to  employ  white  labor  instead  of  Negro, 
to  banish  the  editor  of  the  Record,  and  to  send  away  from  the 
city  the  printing-press  in  the  office  of  that  paper;  and  a  com- 
mittee of  twenty-five  was  appointed  to  see  that  these  resolu- 
tions were  carried  into  effect  within  twenty-four  hours.  In  the 
course  of  the  terrible  day  that  followed  the  printing  office  was 
destroyed,  several  white  Republicans  were  driven  from  the 
city,  and  nine  Negroes  were  killed  at  once,  though  no  one  could 
say  with  accuracy  just  how  many  more  lost  their  lives  or  were 
seriously  wounded  before  the  trouble  was  over. 

Charles  W.  Chesnutt,  in  The  Marrow  of  Tradition,  has 
given  a  faithful  portrayal  of  these  disgraceful  events,  the  Well- 
ington of  the  story  being  Wilmington.  Perhaps  the  best  com- 
mentary on  those  who  thus  sought  power  was  afforded  by 
their  apologist,  a  Presbyterian  minister  and  editor,  A.  J.  Mc- 
Kelway,  who  on  this  occasion  and  others  wrote  articles  in  the 
Independent  and  the  Outlook  justifying  the  proceedings.  Said 
he :  "It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  the  Red  Shirts  without  a  smile. 
They  victimized  the  Negroes  with  a  huge  practical  joke.  .  .  . 
A  dozen  men  would  meet  at  a  crossroad,  on  horseback,  clad  in 
red  shirts  or  calico,  flannel  or  silk,  according  to  the  taste  of 
the  owner  and  the  enthusiasm  of  his  womankind.    They  would 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  313 

gallop  through  the  country,  and  the  Negro  would  quietly  make 
up  his  mind  that  his  interest  in  political  affairs  was  not  a  large 
one,  anyhow.  It  would  be  wise  not  to  vote,  and  wiser  not  to 
register  to  prevent  being  dragooned  into  voting  on  election 
day."  It  thus  appears  that  the  forcible  seizure  of  the  political 
rights  of  people,  the  killing  and  wounding  of  many,  and  the 
compelling  of  scores  to  leave  their  homes  amount  in  the  end 
to  not  more  than  a  "practical  joke." 

One  part  of  the  new  program  was  the  most  intense  opposi- 
tion to  Federal  Negro  appointees  anywhere  in  the  South.  On 
the  morning  of  February  22,  1898,  Frazer  B.  Baker,  the  col- 
ored postmaster  at  Lake  City,  S.  C,  awoke  to  find  his  house 
in  flames.  Attempting  to  escape,  he  and  his  baby  boy  were 
shot  and  killed  and  their  bodies  consumed  in  the  burning  house. 
His  wife  and  the  other  children  were  wounded  but  escaped. 
The  Postmaster-General  was  quite  disposed  to  see  that  justice 
was  done  in  this  case ;  but  the  men  charged  with  the  crime  gave 
the  most  trivial  alibis,  and  on  Saturday,  April  22,  1899,  the 
jury  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  at  Charleston  reported 
its  failure  to  agree  on  a  verdict.  Three  years  later  the  whole 
problem  was  presented  strongly  to  President  Roosevelt.  When 
Mrs.  Minne  Cox,  who  was  serving  efficiently  as  postmistress 
at  Indianola,  Miss.,  was  forced  to  resign  because  of  threats, 
he  closed  the  office;  and  when  there  was  protest  against  the 
appointment  of  Dr.  William  D.  Crum  as  collector  of  the  port 
of  Charleston,  he  said,  "I  do  not  intend  to  appoint  any  unfit 
man  to  office.  So  far  as  I  legitimately  can,  I  shall  always 
endeavor  to  pay  regard  to  the  wishes  and  feelings  of  the  people 
of  each  locality ;  but  I  can  not  consent  to  take  the  position  that 
the  door  of  hope — the  door  of  opportunity — is  to  be  shut  upon 
any  man,  no  matter  how  worthy,  purely  upon  the  grounds  of 
race  or  color.  Such  an  attitude  would,  according  to  my  con- 
victions, be  fundamentally  wrong."  These  memorable  words, 
coming  in  a  day  of  compromise  and  expediency  in  high  places, 
greatly  cheered  the  heart  of  the  race.  Just  the  year  before,  the 
importance  of  the  incident  of  Booker  T.  Washington's  taking 
lunch  with  President  Roosevelt  was  rather  unnecessarily  mag- 
nified by  the  South  into  all  sorts  of  discussion  of  social  equality. 

On  Tuesday,  January  24,  1899,  a  fire  in  the  center  of  the 


3 H    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

town  of  Palmetto,  Ga.,  destroyed  a  hotel,  two  stores,  and  a 
storehouse,  on  which  property  there  was  little  insurance.  The 
next  Saturday  there  was  another  fire  and  this  destroyed  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  town.  For  some  weeks  there  was  no  clue 
as  to  the  origin  of  these  fires ;  but  about  the  middle  of  March 
something  overheard  by  a  white  citizen  led  to  the  implicating 
of  nine  Negroes.  These  men  were  arrested  and  confined  for 
the  night  of  March  15  in  a  warehouse  to  await  trial  the  next 
morning,  a  dummy  guard  of  six  men  being  placed  before  the 
door.  About  midnight  a  mob  came,  pushed  open  the  door,  and 
fired  two  volleys  at  the  Negroes,  killing  four  immediately  and 
fatally  wounding  four  more.  The  circumstances  of  this  atro- 
cious crime  oppressed  the  Negro  people  of  the  state  as  few 
things  had  done  since  the  Civil  War.  That  it  did  no  good  was 
evident,  for  in  its  underlying  psychology  it  was  closely  associ- 
ated with  a  double  crime  that  was  now  to  be  committed.  In 
April,  Sam  Hose,  a  Negro  who  had  brooded  on  the  happenings 
at  Palmetto,  not  many  miles  from  the  scene  killed  a  farmer, 
Alfred  Cranford,  who  had  been  a  leader  of  the  mob,  and  out- 
raged his  wife.  For  two  weeks  he  was  hunted  like  an  animal, 
the  white  people  of  the  state  meanwhile  being  almost  unnerved 
and  the  Negroes  sickened  by  the  pursuit.  At  last,  however, 
he  was  found,  and  on  Sunday,  April  23,  at  Newnan,  Ga.,  he 
was  burned,  his  execution  being  accompanied  by  unspeakable 
mutilation;  and  on  the  same  day  Lige  Strickland,  a  Negro 
preacher  whom  Flose  had  accused  of  complicity  in  his  crime, 
was  hanged  near  Palmetto.  The  nation  stood  aghast,  for  the 
recent  events  in  Georgia  had  shaken  the  very  foundations  of 
American  civilization.  Said  the  Charleston  News  and  Courier: 
"The  chains  which  bound  the  citizen,  Sam  Hose,  to  the  stake 
at  Newnan  mean  more  for  us  and  for  his  race  than  the  chains 
or  bonds  of  slavery,  which  they  supplanted.  The  flames  that 
lit  the  scene  of  his  torture  shed  their  baleful  light  throughout 
every  corner  of  our  land,  and  exposed  a  state  of  things,  actual 
and  potential,  among  us  that  should  rouse  the  dullest  mind  to 
a  sharp  sense  of  our  true  condition,  and  of  our  unchanged  and 
unchangeable  relations  to  the  whole  race  whom  the  tortured 
wretch  represented." 

Violence  breeds   violence,   and   two  or  three   outstanding 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  315 

events  are  yet  to  be  recorded.  On  August  23,  1899,  at  Darien, 
Ga.,  hundreds  of  Negroes,  who  for  days  had  been  aroused  by 
rumors  of  a  threatened  lynching,  assembled  at  the  ringing  of 
the  bell  of  a  church  opposite  the  jail  and  by  their  presence  pre- 
vented the  removal  of  a  prisoner.  They  were  later  tried  for  in- 
surrection and  twenty-one  sent  to  the  convict  farms  for  a  year. 
The  general  circumstances  of  the  uprising  excited  great  interest 
throughout  the  country.  In  May,  1900,  in  Augusta,  Ga.,  an 
unfortunate  street  car  incident  resulted  in  the  death  of  the 
aggressor,  a  young  white  man  named  Whitney,  and  in  the 
lynching  of  the  colored  man,  Wilson,  who  killed  him.  In  this 
instance  the  victim  was  tortured  and  mutilated,  parts  of  his 
body  and  of  the  rope  by  which  he  was  hanged  being  passed 
around  as  souvenirs.  A  Negro  organization  at  length  recov- 
ered the  body,  and  so  great  was  the  excitement  at  the  funeral 
that  the  coffin  was  not  allowed  to  be  opened.  Two  months 
later,  in  New  Orleans,  there  was  a  most  extraordinary  occur- 
rence, the  same  being  important  because  the  leading  figure  was 
very  frankly  regarded  by  the  Negroes  as  a  hero  and  his  fight 
in  his  own  defense  a  sign  that  the  men  of  the  race  would  not 
always  be  shot  down  without  some  effort  to  protect  themselves. 
One  night  in  July,  an  hour  before  midnight,  two  Negroes 
Robert  Charles  and  Leonard  Pierce,  who  had  recently  come 
into  the  city  from  Mississippi  and  whose  movements  had 
interested  the  police,  were  found  by  three  officers  on  the  front 
steps  of  a  house  in  Dryades  Street.  Being  questioned  they  re- 
plied that  they  had  been  in  the  town  two  or  three  days  and  had 
secured  work.  In  the  course  of  the  questioning  the  larger  of 
the  Negroes,  Charles,  rose  to  his  feet ;  he  was  seized  by  one  of 
the  officers,  Mora,  who  began  to  use  his  billet ;  and  in  the  strug- 
gle that  resulted  Charles  escaped  and  Mora  was  wounded  in 
each  hand  and  the  hip.  Charles  now  took  refuge  in  a  small 
house  on  Fourth  Street,  and  when  he  was  surrounded,  with 
deadly  aim  he  shot  and  instantly  killed  the  first  two  officers 
who  appeared.*  The  other  men  advancing,  retreated  and  waited 

*  From  this  time  forth  the  wildest  rumors  were  afloat  and  the  number 
of  men  that  Charles  had  killed  was  greatly  exaggerated.  Some  reports 
said  scores  or  even  hundreds,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  any  figures 
given  herewith  are  an  understatement. 


316    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

until  daylight  for  reenforcement,  and  Charles  himself  with- 
drew to  other  quarters,  and  for  some  days  his  whereabouts 
were  unknown.  With  the  new  day,  however,  the  city  was  wild 
with  excitement  and  thousands  of  men  joined  in  the  search, 
the  newspapers  all  the  while  stirring  the  crowd  to  greater  fury. 
Mobs  rushed  up  and  down  the  streets  assaulting  Negroes  wher- 
ever they  could  be  found,  no  effort  to  check  them  being  made 
by  the  police.  On  the  second  night  a  crowd  of  nearly  a 
thousand  was  addressed  at  the  Lee  Monument  by  a  man  from 
Kenner,  a  town  a  few  miles  above  the  city.  Said  he:  "Gentle- 
men, I  am  from  Kenner,  and  I  have  come  down  here  to-night 
to  assist  you  in  teaching  the  blacks  a  lesson.  I  have  killed  a 
Negro  before  and  in  revenge  of  the  wrong  wrought  upon  you 
and  yours  I  am  willing  to  kill  again.  The  only  way  you  can 
teach  these  niggers  a  lesson  and  put  them  in  their  place  is  to  go 
out  and  lynch  a  few  of  them  as  an  object  lesson.  String  up  a 
few  of  them.  That  is  the  only  thing  to  do — kill  them,  string 
them  up,  lynch  them.  I  will  lead  you.  On  to  the  parish  prison 
and  lynch  Pierce."  The  mob  now  rushed  to  the  prison,  stores 
and  pawnshops  being  plundered  on  the  way.  Within  the  next 
few  hours  a  Negro  was  taken  from  a  street  car  on  Canal  Street, 
killed,  and  his  body  thrown  into  the  gutter.  An  old  man  of 
seventy  going  to  work  in  the  morning  was  fatally  shot.  On 
Rousseau  Street  the  mob  fired  into  a  little  cabin;  the  inmates 
were  asleep  and  an  old  woman  was  killed  in  bed.  Another  old 
woman  who  looked  out  from  her  home  was  beaten  into  insensi- 
bility. A  man  sitting  at  his  door  was  shot,  beaten,  and  left 
for  dead.  Such  were  the  scenes  that  were  enacted  almost 
hourly  from  Monday  until  Friday  evening.  One  night  the 
excellent  school  building  given  by  Thorny  Lafon,  a  member 
of  the  race  and  a  philanthropist,  was  burned. 

About  three  o'clock  on  Friday  afternoon  Charles  was  found 
to  be  in  a  two-story  house  at  the  corner  of  Saratoga  and  Clio 
Streets.  Two  officers,  Porteus  and  Lally,  entered  a  lower  room. 
The  first  fell  dead  at  the  first  shot,  and  the  second  was  mor- 
tally wounded  by  the  next.  A  third,  Bloomfield,  waiting  with 
gun  in  hand,  was  wounded  at  the  first  shot  and  killed  at  the 
second.  The  crowd  retreated,  but  bullets  rained  upon  the 
house,  Charles  all  the  while  keeping  watch  in  every  direction 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  317 

from  four  different  windows.  Every  now  and  then  he  thrust 
his  rifle  through  one  of  the  shattered  windowpanes  and  fired, 
working  with  incredible  rapidity.  He  succeeded  in  killing  two 
more  of  his  assailants  and  wounding  two.  At  last  he  realized 
that  the  house  was  on  fire,  and  knowing  that  the  end  had 
come  he  rushed  forth  upon  his  foes,  fired  one  shot  more  and 
fell  dead.  He  had  killed  eight  men  and  mortally  wounded  two 
or  three  more.  His  body  was  mutilated.  In  his  room  there 
was  afterwards  found  a  copy  of  a  religious  publication,  and 
it  was  known  that  he  had  resented  disfranchisement  in  Louisi- 
ana and  had  distributed  pamphlets  to  further  a  colonization 
scheme.  No  incriminating  evidence,  however,  was  found.  „.. 
In  the  same  memorable  year,  1900,  on  the  night  of  Wednes- 
day, August  15,  there  were  serious  riots  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  On  the  preceding  Sunday  a  policeman  named  Thorpe 
in  attempting  to  arrest  a  colored  woman  was  stabbed  by  a 
Negro,  Arthur  Harris,  so  fatally  that  he  died  on  Monday.  On 
Wednesday  evening  Negroes  were  dragged  from  the  street  cars 
and  beaten,  and  by  midnight  there  were  thousands  of  rioters 
between  25th  and  35th  Streets.  On  the  next  night  the  trouble 
was  resumed.  These  events  were  followed  almost  immediately 
by  riots  in  Akron,  Ohio.  On  the  last  Sunday  in  October,  1901, 
while  some  Negroes  were  holding  their  usual  fall  camp-meet- 
ing in  a  grove  in  Washington  Parish,  Louisiana,  they  were 
attacked,  and  a  number  of  people,  not  less  than  ten  and  per- 
haps several  more,  were  killed;  and  hundreds  of  men,  women, 
and  children  felt  forced  to  move  away  from  the  vicinity.  In 
the  first  week  of  March,  1904,  there  was  in  Mississippi  a 
lynching  that  exceeded  even  others  of  the  period  in  its  horror 
and  that  became  notorious  for  its  use  of  a  corkscrew.  A  white 
planter  of  Doddsville  was  murdered,  and  a  Negro,  Luther 
Holbert,  was  charged  with  the  crime.  Holbert  fled,  and  his 
innocent  wife  went  with  him.  Further  report  we  read  in  the 
Democratic  Evening  Post  of  Vicksburg  as  follows:  "When 
the  two  Negroes  were  captured,  they  were  tied  to  trees,  and 
while  the  funeral  pyres  were  being  prepared  they  were  forced 
to  suffer  the  most  fiendish  tortures.  The  blacks  were  forced 
to  hold  out  their  hands  while  one  finger  at  a  time  was  chopped  ! 
off.     The  fingers  were  distributed  as  souvenirs.     The  ears  of 


318    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

the  murderers  were  cut  off.  Holbert  was  beaten  severely,  his 
skull  was  fractured,  and  one  of  his  eyes,  knocked  out  with  a 
stick,  hung  by  a  shred  from  the  socket.  .  .  .  The  most  ex- 
cruciating form  of  punishment  consisted  in  the  use  of  a  large 
corkscrew  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the  mob.  This  instrument 
was  bored  into  the  flesh  of  the  man  and  the  woman,  in  the 
arms,  legs,  and  body,  and  then  pulled  out,  the  spirals  tearing 
out  big  pieces  of  raw,  quivering  flesh  every  time  it  was  with- 
drawn." In  the  summer  of  this  same  year  Georgia  was  once 
more  the  scene  of  a  horrible  lynching,  two  Negroes,  Paul 
Reed  and  Will  Cato — because  of  the  murder  o-f  the  Hodges 
family  six  miles  from  the  town  on  July  20 — being  burned 
at  the  stake  at  Statesville  under  unusually  depressing  circum- 
stances. In  August,  1908,  there  were  in  Springfield, 
Illinois,  race  riots  of  such  a  serious  nature  that  a  force 
of  six  thousand  soldiers  was  required  to  quell  them.  These 
'  riots  were  significant  not  only  because  of  the  attitude  of  North- 
ern laborers  toward  Negro  competition,  but  also  because  of 
the  indiscriminate  killing  of  Negroes  by  people  in  the  North, 
this  indicating  a  genuine  nationalization  of  the  Negro  Problem. 
The  real  climax  of  violence  within  the  period,  however,  was 
the  Atlanta  Massacre  of  Saturday,  September  22,  1906. 

Throughout  the  summer  the  heated  campaign  of  Hoke 
Smith  for  the  governorship  capitalized  the  gathering  sentiment 
for  the  disfranchisement  of  the  Negro  in  the  state  and  at 
length  raised  the  race  issue  to  such  a  high  pitch  that  it  leaped 
into  flame.  The  feeling  was  intensified  by  the  report  of  as- 
saults and  attempted  assaults  by  Negroes,  particularly  as  these 
were  detailed  and  magnified  or  even  invented  by  an  evening 
paper,  the  Atlanta  News,  against  which  the  Fulton  County 
Grand  Jury  afterwards  brought  in  an  indictment  as  largely 
responsible  for  the  riot,  and  which  was  forced  to  suspend 
publication  when  the  business  men  of  the  city  withdrew  their 
support.  Just  how  much  foundation  there  was  to  the  rumors 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  report  of  the  investigator: 
"Three,  charged  to  white  men,  attracted  comparatively  little 
attention  in  the  newspapers,  although  one,  the  offense  of  a 
man  named  Turnadge,  was  shocking  in  its  details.  Of  twelve 
such  charges  against  Negroes  in  the  six  months  preceding  the 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  319 

riot,  two  were  cases  of  rape,  horrible  in  their  details,  three 
were  aggravated  attempts  at  rape,  three  may  have  been  at- 
tempts, three  were  pure  cases  of  fright  on  the  part  of  white 
women,  and  in  one  the  white  woman,  first  asserting  that  a 
Negro  had  assaulted  her,  finally  confessed  attempted  suicide."  * 
On  Friday,  September  21,  while  a  Negro  was  on  trial,  the 
father  of  the  girl  concerned  asked  the  recorder  for  permission 
to  deal  with  the  Negro  with  his  own  hand,  and  an  outbreak 
was  barely  averted  in  the  open  court.     On  Saturday  evening, 
however,   some   elements   in   the   city  and   from  neighboring 
towns,  heated  by  liquor  and  newspaper  extras,  became  openly 
riotous  and  until  midnight  defied  all  law  and  authority.    Ne- 
groes were  assaulted  wherever  they  appeared,   for  the  most 
part  being  found  unsuspecting,  as  in  the  case  of  those  who 
happened  to  be  going  home  from  work  and  were  on  street 
cars  passing  through  the  heart  of  the  city.    In  one  barber 
shop  two  workers  were  beaten  to  death  and  their  bodies  man- 
gled.  A  lame  bootblack,  innocent  and  industrious,  was  dragged 
from  his  work  and  kicked  and  beaten  to  death.   Another  young 
Negro  was  stabbed  with  jack-knives.   Altogether  very  nearly  a 
score  of  persons  lost  their  lives  and  two  or  three  times  as 
many  were  injured.    After  some  time  Governor  Terrell  mobil- 
ized the  militia,  but  the  crowd  did  not  take  this  move  seriously, 
and  the  real  feeling  of  the  Mayor,  who  turned  on  the  hose  of. 
the  fire  department,  was  shown  by  his  statement  that  just  so 
long  as  the  Negroes  committed  certain  crimes  just  so  long 
would  they  be  unceremoniously  dealt  with.    Sunday  dawned 
upon  a  city  of  astounded  white  people  and  outraged  and  sullen 
Negroes.    Throughout  Monday  and  Tuesday  the  tension  con- 
tinued, the  Negroes  endeavoring  to  defend  themselves  as  well 
as  they  could.    On  Monday  night  the  union  of  some  citizens 
with  policemen  who  were  advancing  in  a  suburb  in  which  most 
of  the  homes  were  those  of  Negroes,  resulted  in  the  death  of 
James  Heard,  an  officer,  and  in  the  wounding  of  some  of  those 
who  accompanied  him.    More  Negroes  were  also  killed,  and  a 
white  woman  to  whose  front  porch  two  men  were  chased  died 
of  fright  at  seeing  them  shot  to  death.    It  was  the  disposition, 

*  R.  S.  Baker :   Following  the  Colour  Line,  3. 


320     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

however,  on  the  part  of  the  Negroes  to  make  armed  resistance 
that  really  put  an  end  to  the  massacre.  Now  followed  a  pro- 
cedure that  is  best  described  in  the  words  of  the  prominent 
apologist  for  such  outbreaks.  Said  A.  J.  McKelway:  "Tues- 
day every  house  in  the  town  (i.  e.,  the  suburb  referred  to 
above)  was  entered  by  the  soldiers,  and  some  two  hundred 
and  fifty  Negroes  temporarily  held,  while  the  search  was  pro- 
ceeding and  inquiries  being  made.  They  were  all  disarmed, 
and  those  with  concealed  weapons,  or  under  suspicion  of  hav- 
ing been  in  the  party  firing  on  the  police,  were  sent  to  jail."  * 
It  is  thus  evident  that  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  the 
Negroes  who  had  suffered  most,  not  the  white  men  who  killed 
a  score  of  them,  were  disarmed,  and  that  for  the  time  being 
their  terrified  women  and  children  were  left  defenseless. 
McKelway  also  says  in  this  general  connection:  "Any  South- 
ern man  would  protect  an  innocent  Negro  who  appealed  to 
him  for  help,  with  his  own  life  if  necessary."  This  sounds 
like  chivalry,  but  it  is  really  the  survival  of  the  old  slavery 
attitude  that  begs  the  whole  question.  The  Negro  does  not 
feel  that  he  should  ask  any  other  man  to  protect  him.  He  has 
quite  made  up  his  mind  that  he  will  defend  his  own  home 
himself.  He  stands  as  a  man  before  the  bar,  and  the  one 
thing  he  wants  to  know  is  if  the  law  and  the  courts  of  Amer- 
ica are  able  to  give  him  justice — simple  justice,  nothing  more. 

5.     The  Question  of  Labor 

From  time  to  time,  in  connection  with  cases  of  violence,  we 
have  referred  to  the  matter  of  labor.  Riots  such  as  we  have 
described  are  primarily  social  in  character,  the  call  of  race  in- 
variably being  the  final  appeal.  The  economic  motive  has 
accompanied  this,  however,  and  has  been  found  to  be  of  in- 
creasing importance.  Says  DuBois :  "The  fatal  campaign  in 
Georgia  which  culminated  in  the  Atlanta  Massacre  was  an 
attempt,  fathered  by  conscienceless  politicians,  to  arouse  the 
prejudices  of  the  rank  and  file  of  white  laborers  and  farmers 
against  the  growing  competition  of  black  men,  so  that  black 

*  Outlook,  November  3,  1906,  p.  561. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  321 

men  by  law  could  be  forced  back  to  subserviency  and  serf- 
dom." *  The  question  was  indeed  constantly  recurrent,  but 
even  by  the  end  of  the  period  policies  had  not  yet  been  defi- 
nitely decided  upon,  and  for  the  time  being  there  were  fre- 
quent armed  clashes  between  the  Negro  and  the  white  laborer. 
Both  capital  and  common  sense  were  making  it  clear,  how- 
ever, that  the  Negro  was  undoubtedly  a  labor  asset  and  would 
have  to  be  given  place  accordingly. 

In  March,  1895,  there  were  bloody  riots  in  New  Orleans, 
these  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  white  laborers  who  were 
beginning  to  be  organized  objected  to  the  employment  of 
Negro  workers  by  the  shipowners  for  the  unloading  of  ves- 
sels. When  the  trouble  was  at  its  height  volley  after  volley 
was  poured  upon  the  Negroes,  and  in  turn  two  white  men 
were  killed  and  several  wounded.  The  commercial  bodies  of 
the  city  met,  blamed  the  Governor  and  the  Mayor  for  the 
series  of  outbreaks,  and  demanded  that  the  outrages  cease. 
Said  they :  "Forbearance  has  ceased  to  be  a  virtue.  We  can  no 
longer  treat  with  men  who,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  are  shoot- 
ing down  an  inoffensive  people  because  they  will  not  think  and 
act  with  them.  For  these  reasons  we  say  to  these  people  that, 
cost  what  it  may,  we  are  determined  that  the  commerce  of 
this  city  must  and  shall  be  protected ;  that  every  man  who  de- 
sires to  perform  honest  labor  must  and  shall  be  permitted  to 
do  so  regardless  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition."  About 
August  1  of  this  same  year,  1895,  there  were  sharp  conflicts 
between  the  white  and  the  black  miners  at  Birmingham,  a 
number  being  killed  on  both  sides  before  military  authority 
could  intervene.  Three  years  later,  moreover,  the  invasion  of 
the  North  by  Negro  labor  had  begun,  and  about  November  17, 
1898,  there  was  serious  trouble  in  the  mines  at  Pana  and  Vir- 
den,  Illinois.  In  the  same  month  the  convention  of  railroad 
brotherhoods  in  Norfolk  expressed  strong  hostility  to  Negro 
labor,  Grand  Master  Frank  P.  Sargent  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Firemen  saying  that  one  of  the  chief  purposes  of 
the  meeting  of  the  brotherhoods  was  "to  begin  a  campaign 
in  advocacy  of  white  supremacy  in  the  railway  service."   This 

*  The  Negro  in  the  South,  115. 


322     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

November,  it  will  be  recalled,  was  the  fateful  month  of  the 
election  riots  in  North  and  South  Carolina.  The  People,  the 
Socialist-Labor  publication,  commenting  upon  a  Negro  indig- 
nation meeting  at  Cooper  Union  and  upon  the  problem  in  gen- 
eral, said  that  the  Negro  was  essentially  a  wage-slave,  that  it 
was  the  capitalism  of  the  North  and  not  humanity  that  in 
the  first  place  had  demanded  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  that 
in  the  new  day  capital  demanded  the  subjugation  of  the  work- 
ing class — Negro  or  otherwise ;  and  it  blamed  the  Negroes  for 
not  seeing  the  real  issues  at  stake.  It  continued  with  emphasis : 
"It  is  not  the  Negro  that  was  massacred  in  the  Carolinas;  it 
was  Carolina  workingmen,  Carolina  wage-slaves  who  happened 
to  be  colored  men.  Not  as  Negroes  must  the  race  rise;  .  .  . 
it  is  as  workingmen,  as  a  branch  of  the  working  class,  that 
the  Negro  must  denounce  the  Carolina  felonies.  Only  by  touch- 
ing that  chord  can  he  denounce  to  a  purpose,  because  only  then 
does  he  place  himself  upon  that  elevation  that  will  enable  him 
to  perceive  the  source  of  the  specific  wrong  complained  of 
now."  This  point  of  view  was  destined  more  and  more  to 
stimulate  those  interested  in  the  problem,  whether  they  ac- 
cepted it  in  its  entirety  or  not.  Another  opinion,  very  differ- 
ent and  also  important,  was  that  given  in  1899  by  the  editor 
of  Dixie,  a  magazine  published  in  Atlanta  and  devoted  to 
Southern  industrial  interests.  Said  he :  "The  manufacturing 
center  of  the  United  States  will  one  day  be  located  in  the 
South;  and  this  will  come  about,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  for 
the  reason  that  the  Negro  is  a  fixture  here.  .  .  .  Organized 
labor,  as  it  exists  to-day,  is  a  menace  to  industry.  The  Negro 
stands  as  a  permanent  and  positive  barrier  against  labor  or- 
ganization in  the  South.  ...  So  the  Negro,  all  unwittingly, 
is  playing  an  important  part  in  the  drama  of  Southern  indus- 
trial development.  His  good  nature  defies  the  Socialist."  At 
the  time  this  opinion  seemed  plausible,  and  yet  the  very  next 
two  decades  were  to  raise  the  question  if  it  was  not  founded 
on  fallacious  assumptions. 

The  real  climax  of  labor  trouble  as  of  mob  violence  within 
the  period  came  in  Georgia  and  in  Atlanta,  a  city  that  now 
assumed  outstanding  importance  as  a  battleground  of  the  prob- 
lems of  the  New  South.    In  April,  1909,  it  happened  that  ten 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  323 

white  workers  on  the  Georgia  Railroad  who  had  been  placed 
on  the  "extra  list"  were  replaced  by  Negroes  at  lower  wages. 
Against  this  there  was  violent  protest  all  along  the  route.  A 
little  more  than  a  month  later  the  white  Firemen's  Union 
started  a  strike  that  was  intended  to  be  the  beginning  of  an 
effort  to  drive  all  Negro  firemen  from  Southern  roads,  and  it 
was  soon  apparent  that  the  real  contest  was  one  occasioned  by 
the  progress  in  the  South  of  organized  labor  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  progress  of  the  Negro  in  efficiency  on  the  other.  The 
essential  motives  that  entered  into  the  struggle  were  in  fact 
the  same  as  those  that  characterized  the  trouble  in  New  Or- 
leans in  1895.  Said  E.  A.  Ball,  second  vice-president  of  the 
Firemen's  Union,  in  an  address  to  the  public:  "It  will  be  up 
to  you  to  determine  whether  the  white  firemen  now  employed 
on  the  Georgia  Railroad  shall  be  accorded  rights  and  privi- 
leges over  the  Negro,  or  whether  he  shall  be  placed  on  the 
same  equality  with  the  Negro.  Also,  it  will  be  for  you  to 
determine  whether  or  not  white  firemen,  supporting  families 
in  and  around  Atlanta  on  a  pay  of  $1.75  a  day,  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  vacate  their  positions  in  Atlanta  joint  terminals  for 
Negroes,  who  are  willing  to  do  the  same  work  for  $1.25." 
Some  papers,  like  the  Augusta  Herald,  said  that  it  was  a  mis- 
taken policy  to  give  preference  to  Negroes  when  white  men 
would  ultimately  have  to  be  put  in  charge  of  trains  and  engines; 
but  others,  like  the  Baltimore  News,  said,  "If  the  Negro  can 
be  driven  from  one  skilled  employment,  he  can  be  driven  from 
another;  but  a  country  that  tries  to  do  it  is  flying  in  the  face 
of  every  economic  law,  and  must  feel  the  evil  effects  of  its 
policy  if  it  could  be  carried  out."  At  any  rate  feeling  ran 
very  high;  for  a  whole  week  about  June  1  there  were  very 
few  trains  between  Atlanta  and  Augusta,  and  there  were  some 
acts  of  violence;  but  in  the  face  of  the  capital  at  stake  and 
the  fundamental  issues  involved  it  was  simply  impossible  for 
the  railroad  to  give  way.  The  matter  was  at  length  referred 
to  a  board  of  arbitration  which  decided  that  the  Georgia  Rail- 
road was  still  to  employ  Negroes  whenever  they  were  found 
qualified  and  that  they  were  to  receive  the  same  wages  as 
white  workers.  Some  thought  that  this  decision  would  ulti- 
mately tell  against  the  Negro,  but  such  was  not  the  imme- 


r 


324     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

diate  effect  at  least,  and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  white 
firemen  had  lost  in  the  strike.  The  whole  matter  was  in  fact 
fundamentally  one  of  the  most  pathetic  that  we  have  had  to 
record.  Humble  white  workers,  desirous  of  improving  the 
economic  condition  of  themselves  and  their  families,  instead 
of  assuming  a  statesmanlike  and  truly  patriotic  attitude  toward 
their  problem,  turned  aside  into  the  wilderness  of  racial  hatred 
and  were  lost. 

This  review  naturally  prompts  reflection  as  to  the  whole 
function  of  the  Negro  laborer  in  the  South.  In  the  first  place, 
what  is  he  worth,  and  especially  what  is  he  worth  in  honest 
Southern  opinion?  It  was  said  after  the  Civil  War  that  he 
would  not  work  except  under  compulsion;  just  how  had  he 
come  to  be  regarded  in  the  industry  of  the  New  South?  In 
1894  a  number  of  large  employers  were  asked  about  this  point. 
50  per  cent  said  that  in  skilled  labor  they  considered  the 
Negro  inferior  to  the  white  worker,  46  per  cent  said  that  he 
was  fairly  equal,  and  4  per  cent  said  that,  all  things  con- 
sidered, he  was  superior.  As  to  common  labor  54  per  cent 
said  that  he  was  equal,  29  per  cent  superior,  and  17  per  cent 
inferior  to  the  white  worker.  At  the  time  it  appeared  that 
wages  paid  Negroes  averaged  80  per  cent  of  those  paid  white 
men.  A  similar  investigation  by  the  Chattanooga  Tradesman 
in  1902  brought  forth  five  hundred  replies.  These  were  sum- 
marized as  follows:  "We  find  the  Negro  more  useful  and 
skilled  in  the  cotton-seed  oil-mills,  the  lumber-mills,  the  foun- 
dries, brick  kilns,  mines,  and  blast-furnaces.  He  is  superior 
to  white  labor  and  possibly  superior  to  any  other  labor  in  these 
establishments,  but  not  in  the  capacity  of  skillful  and  ingenious 
artisans."  In  this  opinion,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  the  Negro 
was  subjected  to  a  severe  test  in  which  nothing  whatever  was 
given  to  him,  and  at  least  it  appears  that  in  many  lines  of  labor 
he  is  not  less  than  indispensable  to  the  progress  of  the  South. 
The  question  then  arises :  Just  what  is  the  relation  that  he  is 
finally  to  sustain  to  other  workingmen?  It  would  seem  that 
white  worker  and  black  worker  would  long  ago  have  realized 
their  identity  of  interest  and  have  come  together.  The  unions, 
however,  have  been  slow  to  admit  Negroes  and  give  them  the 
same  footing  and  backing  as  white  men.    Under  the  circum- 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  325 

stances  accordingly  there  remained  nothing  else  for  the  Negro 
to  do  except  to  work  wherever  his  services  were  desired  and 
on  the  best  terms  that  he  was  able  to  obtain. 


6.     Defamation:  Brownsville 

Crime  demands  justification,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
after  such  violence  as  that  which  we  have  described,  and  after 
several  states  had  passed  disfranchising  acts,  there  appeared 
in  the  first  years  of  the  new  century  several  publications  espe- 
cially defamatory  of  the  race.  Some  books  unfortunately 
descended  to  a  coarseness  in  vilification  such  as  had  not  been 
reached  since  the  Civil  War.  From  a  Bible  House  in  St.  Louis 
in  1902  came  The  Negro  a  Beast,  or  In  the  Image  of  God, 
a  book  that  was  destined  to  have  an  enormous  circulation 
among  the  white  people  of  the  poorer  class  in  the  South,  and 
that  of  course  promoted  the  mob  spirit.*  Contemporary  and 
of  the  same  general  tenor  were  R.  W.  Shufeldt's  The  Negro 
and  W.  B.  Smith's  The  Color  Line,  while  a  member  of  the 
race  itself,  William  Hannibal  Thomas,  published  a  book,  The 
American  Negro,  that  was  without  either  faith  or  ideal  and 
as  a  denunciation  of  the  Negro  in  America  unparalleled  in 
its  vindictiveness  and  exaggeration,  f 

In  January,  1904,  the  new  governor  of  Mississippi,  J.  K. 
Vardaman,  in  his  inaugural  address  went  to  the  extreme  of 
voicing  the  opinion  of  those  who  were  now  contending  that 
the  education  of  the  Negro  was  only  complicating  the  prob- 
lem and  intensifying  its  dangerous  features.  Said  he  of  the 
Negro  people :  "As  a  race,  they  are  deteriorating  morally  every 

*  Its  fundamental  assumptions  were  ably  refuted  by  Edward  Atkinson 
in  the  North  American  Review,  August,  1905. 

tit  was  reviewed  in  the  Dial,  April  16,  1901,  by  W.  E.  B.  DuBois, 
who  said  in  part :  "Mr.  Thomas's  book  is  a  sinister^  symptom— a  growth 
and  development  under  American  conditions  of  life  which  illustrates 
peculiarly  the  anomalous  position  of  black  men,  and  the  terrific  stress 
under  which  they  struggle.  And  the  struggle  and  the  fight  of  human 
beings  against  hard  conditions  of  life  always  tends  to  develop  the 
criminal  or  the  hypocrite,  the  cynic  or  the  radical.  Wherever  among  a 
hard-pressed  people  these  types  begin  to  appear,  it  is  a  visible  sign  of  a 
burden  that  is  threatening  to  overtax  their  strength,  and  the  foreshadow- 
ing of  the  age  of  revolt." 


326    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

day.  Time  has  demonstrated  that  they  are  more  criminal  as 
freemen  than  as  slaves ;  that  they  are  increasing  in  criminality 
with  frightful  rapidity,  being  one-third  more  criminal  in  1890 
than  in  1880."  A  few  weeks  later  Bishop  Brown  of  Arkansas 
in  a  widely  quoted  address  contended  that  the  Southern  Negro 
was  going  backward  both  morally  and  intellectually  and  could 
never  be  expected  to  take  a  helpful  part  in  the  Government; 
and  he  also  justified  lynching.  In  the  same  year  one  of  the 
more  advanced  thinkers  of  the  South,  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy, 
in  Problems  of  the  Present  South  was  not  yet  quite  willing 
to  receive  the  Negro  on  the  basis  of  citizenship;  and  Thomas 
Nelson  Page,  who  had  belittled  the  Negro  in  such  a  collection 
of  stories  as  In  Ole  Virginia  and  in  such  a  novel  as  Red  Rock* 
formally  stated  his  theories  in  The  Negro:  The  Southerner's 
Problem.  The  worst,  however — if  there  could  be  a  worst  in 
such  an  array — was  yet  to  appear.  In  1905  Thomas  Dixon 
added  to  a  series  of  high-keyed  novels  The  Clansman,  a  glori- 
fication of  the  KuKlux  Klan  that  gave  a  malignant  portrayal 
of  the  Negro  and  that  was  of  such  a  quality  as  to  arouse  the 
most  intense  prejudice  and  hatred.  Within  a  few  months  the 
work  was  put  on  the  stage  and  again  and  again  it  threw  audi- 
ences into  the  wildest  excitement.  The  production  was  to  some 
extent  held  to  blame  for  the  Atlanta  Massacre.  In  several 
cities  it  was  proscribed.  In  Philadelphia  on  October  23,  1906, 
after  the  Negro  people  had  made  an  unavailing  protest,  three 
thousand  of  them  made  a  demonstration  before  the  Walnut 
Street  theater  where  the  performance  was  given,  while  the 
conduct  of  some  within  the  playhouse  almost  precipitated  a 
riot;  and  in  this  city  the  play  was  suppressed  the  next  day. 
Throughout  the  South,  however,  and  sometimes  elsewhere  it 
continued  to  do  its  deadly  work,  and  it  was  later  to  furnish 

*  For  a  general  treatment  of  the  matter  of  the  Negro  as  dealt  with  in 
American  Literature,  especially  fiction,  note  "The  Negro  in  American 
Fiction,"  in  the  Dial,  May  II,  1916,  a  paper  included  in  The  Negro  in  Lit- 
erature and  Art.  The  thesis  there  is  that  imaginative  treatment  of  the 
Negro  is  still  governed  by  outworn  antebellum  types,  or  that  in  the  search 
for  burlesque  some  types  of  young  and  uncultured  Negroes  of  the 
present  day  are  deliberately  overdrawn,  but  that  there  is  not  an  honest 
or  a  serious  facing  of  the  characters  and  the  situations  in  the  life  of  the 
Negro  people  in  the  United  States  to-day.  Since  the  paper  first  appeared 
it  has  received  much  further  point;  witness  the  stories  by  E.  K.  Means 
and  Octavius  Roy  Cohen. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  327 

the  basis  of  "The  Birth  of  a  Nation,"  an  elaborate  motion 
picture  of  the  same  general  tendency. 

Still  another  line  of  attack  was  now  to  attempt  to  deprive 
the  Negro  of  any  credit  for  initiative  or  for  any  independent 
achievement  whatsoever.  In  May,  1903,  Alfred  H.  Stone  con- 
tributed to  the  Atlantic  a  paper,  "The  Mulatto  in  the  Negro 
Problem,"  which  contended  at  the  same  time  that  whatever 
meritorious  work  the  race  had  accomplished  was  due  to  the 
infusion  of  white  blood  and  that  it  was  the  mulatto  that 
was  constantly  poisoning  the  mind  of  the  Negro  with  "radical 
teachings  and  destructive  doctrines."  These  points  found  fre- 
quent iteration  throughout  the  period,  and  years  afterwards, 
in  19 1 7,  the  first  found  formal  statement  in  the  American  Jour- 
nal of  Sociology  in  an  article  by  Edward  Byron  Reuter,  "The 
Superiority  of  the  Mulatto,"  which  the  next  year  was  elab- 
orated into  a  volume,  The  Mulatto  in  the  United  States.  To 
argue  the  superiority  of  the  mulatto  of  course  is  simply  to 
argue  once  more  the  inferiority  of  the  Negro  to  the  white  man. 

All  of  this  dispraise  together  presented  a  formidable  case 
and  one  from  which  the  race  suffered  immeasurably;  nor  was 
it  entirely  offset  in  the  same  years  by  the  appearance  even  of 
DuBois's  remarkable  book,  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,  or  by 
the  several  uplift  publications  of  Booker  T.  Washington.  In 
passing  we  wish  to  refer  to  three  points:  (1)  The  effect  of 
education  on  the  Negro;  (2)  the  matter  of  the  Negro  crim- 
inal (and  of  mortality),  and  (3)  the  quality  and  function  of 
the  mulatto. 

Education  could  certainly  not  be  blamed  for  the  difficulties 
of  the  problem  in  the  new  day  until  it  had  been  properly  tried. 
In  no  one  of  the  Southern  states  within  the  period  did  the 
Negro  child  receive  a  fair  chance.  He  was  frequently  sub- 
jected to  inferior  teaching,  dilapidated  accommodations,  and 
short  terms.  In  the  representative  city  of  Atlanta  in  1903  the 
white  school  population  numbered  14,465  and  the  colored 
8,118.  The  Negroes,  however,  while  numbering  35  per  cent 
of  the  whole,  received  but  12  per  cent  of  the  school  funds. 
The  average  white  teacher  received  $745  a  year,  and  the  Negro 
teacher  $450.  In  the  great  reduction  of  the  percentage  of 
illiteracy  in  the  race  from  70  in  1880  to  30.4  in  1910  the  mis- 


328    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

sionary  colleges — those  of  the  American  Missionary  Associa- 
tion, the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  and  the 
Freedmen's  Aid  Society — played  a  much  larger  part  than  they 
are  ordinarily  given  credit  for;  and  it  is  a  very,  very  rare 
occurrence  that  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  institutions  sustained 
by  these  agencies,  or  even  one  who  has  attended  them  for  any 
length  of  time,  has  to  be  summoned  before  the  courts.    Their 
influence  has  most  decidedly  been  on  the  side  of  law  and  order. 
Undoubtedly  some  of  those  who  have  gone  forth  from  these 
schools  have  not  been  very  practical,  and  some  have  not  gained 
a  very  firm  sense  of  relative  values  in  life — it  would  be  a 
miracle  if  all  had;  but  as  a  group  the  young  people  who  have 
attended  the  colleges  have  most  abundantly  justified  the  ex- 
penditures made  in  their  behalf,  expenditures  for  which  their 
respective  states  were  not  responsible  but  of  which  they  reaped 
the  benefit.  From  one  standpoint,  however,  the  so-called  higher 
education  did  most  undoubtedly  complicate  the  problem.   Those 
critics  of  the  race  who  felt  that  the  only  function  of  Negroes 
in  life  was  that  of  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  quite 
fully  realized  that  Negroes  who  had  been  to  college  did  not 
care  to  work  longer  as  field  laborers.    Some  were  to  prove 
scientific  students  of  agriculture,  but  as  a  group  they  were  out 
of  the  class  of  peons.    In  this  they  were  just  like  white  people 
and  all  other  people.    No  one  who  has  once  seen  the  light 
chooses  to  live  always  on  the  plane  of  the  "man  with  the  hoe." 
Nor  need  it  be  thought  that  these  students  are  unduly  crowd- 
ing into  professional  pursuits.    While,  for  instance,  the  num- 
ber of  Negro  physicians  and  dentists  has  greatly  increased 
within  recent  years,  the  number  would  still  have  to  be  four  or 
five  times  as  great  to  sustain  to  the  total  Negro  population 
the  same  proportion  as  that  borne  by  the  whole  number  of 
white  physicians  and  dentists  to  the  total  white  population. 

The  subjects  of  the  criminality  and  the  mortality  of  the 
race  are  in  their  ultimate  reaches  closely  related,  both  being 
mainly  due,  as  we  have  suggested,  to  the  conditions  under 
which  Negroes  have  been  forced  to  live.  In  the  country  dis- 
tricts, until  1900  at  least,  there  was  little  provision  for  improve- 
ments in  methods  of  cooking  or  in  sanitation,  while  in  cities 
the  effects  of  inferior  housing,  poor  and  unlighted  streets,  and 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  329 

of  the  segregation  of  vice  in  Negro  neighborhoods  could  not 
be  otherwise  than  obvious.  Thus  it  happened  in  such  a  year 
as  1898  that  in  Baltimore  the  Negro  death  rate  was  somewhat 
more  and  in  Nashville  just  a  little  less  than  twice  that  of  the 
white  people.  Legal  procedure,  moreover,  emphasized  a  vicious 
circle;  living  conditions  sent  the  Negroes  to  the  courts  in  in- 
creasing numbers,  and  the  courts  sent  them  still  farther  down 
in  the  scale.  There  were  undoubtedly  some  Negro  thieves, 
some  Negro  murderers,  and  some  Negroes  who  were  incon- 
tinent; no  race  has  yet  appeared  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that 
did  not  contain  members  having  such  propensities,  and  all  such 
people  should  be  dealt  with  justly  by  law.  Our  present  con- 
tention is  that  throughout  the  period  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking  the  dominant  social  system  was  not  only  such  as  to 
accentuate  criminal  elements  but  also  such  as  even  sought 
to  discourage  aspiring  men.  A  few  illustrations,  drawn  from 
widely  different  phases  of  life,  must  suffice.  In  the  spring  of 
1903,  and  again  in  1904,  Jackson  W.  Giles,  of  Montgomery 
County,  Alabama,  contended  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  that  he  and  other  Negroes  in  his  county 
were  wrongfully  excluded  from  the  franchise  by  the  new  Ala- 
bama constitution.  Twice  was  his  case  thrown  out  on  techni- 
calities, the  first  time  it  was  said  because  he  was  petitioning 
for  the  right  to  vote  under  a  constitution  whose  validity  he 
denied,  and  the  second  time  because  the  Federal  right  that  he 
claimed  had  not  been  passed  on  in  the  state  court  from  whose 
decision  he  appealed.  Thus  the  supreme  tribunal  in  the  United 
States  evaded  at  the  time  any  formal  judgment  as  to  the  real 
validity  of  the  new  suffrage  provisions.  In  1903,  moreover,  in 
Alabama,  Negroes  charged  with  petty  offenses  and  sometimes 
with  no  offense  at  all  were  still  sent  to  convict  farms  or  turned 
over  to  contractors.  They  were  sometimes  compelled  to  work 
as  peons  for  a  length  of  time;  and  they  were  flogged,  starved, 
hunted  with  bloodhounds,  and  sold  from  one  contractor  to 
another  in  direct  violation  of  law.  One  Joseph  Patterson  bor- 
rowed $1  on  a  Saturday,  promising  to  pay  the  amount  on  the 
following  Tuesday  morning.  He  did  not  get  to  town  at  the 
appointed  time,  and  he  was  arrested  and  carried  before  a  jus- 
tice of  the  peace,  who  found  him  guilty  of  obtaining  money 


330     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

under  false  pretenses.  No  time  whatever  was  given  to  the 
Negro  to  get  witnesses  or  a  lawyer,  or  to  get  money  with 
which  to  pay  his  fine  and  the  costs  of  court.  He  was  sold  for 
$25  to  a  man  named  Hardy,  who  worked  him  for  a  year  and 
then  sold  him  for  $40  to  another  man  named  Pace.  Patterson 
tried  to  escape,  but  was  recaptured  and  given  a  sentence  of 
six  months  more.  He  was  then  required  to  serve  for  an  addi- 
tional year  to  pay  a  doctor's  bill.  When  the  case  at  last  at- 
tracted attention,  it  appeared  that  for  $1  borrowed  in  1903 
he  was  not  finally  to  be  released  before  1906.  Another  case 
of  interest  and  importance  was  set  in  New  York.  In  the  spring 
of  1909  a  pullman  porter  was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  steal- 
ing a  card-case  containing  $20.  The  next  day  he  was  dis- 
charged as  innocent.  He  then  entered  against  his  accuser  a 
suit  for  $10,000  damages.  The  jury  awarded  him  $2,500, 
which  amount  the  court  reduced  to  $300,  Justice  P.  H.  Dugro 
saying  that  a  Negro  when  falsely  imprisoned  did  not  suffer 
the  same  amount  of  injury  that  a  white  man  would  suffer — 
an  opinion  which  the  New  York  Age  very  naturally  character- 
ized as  "one  of  the  basest  and  most  offensive  ever  handed  down 
by  a  New  York  judge." 

In  the  history  of  the  question  of  the  mulatto  two  facts  are 
outstanding.  One  is  that  before  the  Civil  War,  as  was  very 
natural  under  the  circumstances,  mulattoes  became  free  much 
faster  than  pure  Negroes;  thus  the  census  of  1850  showed  that 
581  of  every  1000  free  Negroes  were  mulattoes  and  only  83 
of  every  1000  slaves.  Since  the  Civil  War,  moreover,  the 
mulatto  element  has  rapidly  increased,  advancing  from  it. 2 
per  cent  of  the  Negro  population  in  1850  to  20.9  per  cent  in 
19 10,  or  from  126  to  264  per  1000.  On  the  whole  question 
of  the  function  of  this  mixed  element  the  elaborate  study, 
that  of  Reuter,  is  immediately  thrown  out  of  court  by  its  lack 
of  accuracy.  The  fundamental  facts  on  which  it  rests  its  case 
are  not  always  true,  and  if  premises  are  false  conclusions 
are  worthless.  No  work  on  the  Negro  that  calls  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture  and  Sojourner  Truth  mulattoes  and  that  will 
not  give  the  race  credit  for  several  well-known  pure  Negroes 
of  the  present  day,  can  long  command  the  attention  of 
scholars.     This  whole  argument  on  the  mulatto  goes  back  to 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  331 

the  fallacy  of  degrading  human  beings  by  slavery  for  two 
hundred  years  and  then  arguing  that  they  have  not  the  capacity 
or  the  inclination  to  rise.  In  a  country  predominantly  white 
the  quadroon  has  frequently  been  given  some  advantage  that 
his  black  friend  did  not  have,  from  the  time  that  one  was  a 
house-servant  and  the  other  a  field-hand ;  but  no'  scientific  test 
has  ever  demonstrated  that  the  black  boy  is  intellectually 
inferior  to  the  fair  one.  In  America,  however,  it  is  the 
fashion  to  place  upon  the  Negro  any  blame  or  deficiency  and 
to  claim  for  the  white  race  any  merit  that  an  individual  may 
show.  Furthermore — and  this  is  a  point  not  often  remarked 
in  discussions  of  the  problem — the  element  of  genius  that 
distinguishes  the  Negro  artist  of  mixed  blood  is  most  fre- 
quently one  characteristically  Negro  rather  than  Anglo- 
Saxon.  Much  has  been  made  of  the  fact  that  within  the 
society  of  the  race  itself  there  have  been  lines  of  cleavage,  a 
comparatively  few  people,  very  fair  in  color,  sometimes  draw- 
ing off  to  themselves.  This  is  a  fact,  and  it  is  simply  one  more 
heritage  from  slavery,  most  tenacious  in  some  conservative 
cities  along  the  coast.  Even  there,  however,  old  lines  are  van- 
ishing and  the  fusion  of  different  groups  within  the  race 
rapidly  going  forward.  Undoubtedly  there  has  been  some 
snobbery,  as  there  always  is,  and  a  few  quadroons  and  octo- 
roons have  crossed  the  color  line  and  been  lost  to  the  race; 
but  these  cases  are  after  all  comparatively  few  in  number, 
and  the  younger  generation  is  more  and  more  emphasizing  the 
ideals  of  racial  solidarity.  In  the  future  there  may  continue  to 
be  lines  of  cleavage  in  society  within  the  race,  but  the  stand- 
ards governing  these  will  primarily  be  character  and  merit. 
On  the  whole,  then,  the  mulatto  has  placed  himself  squarely 
on  the  side  of  the  difficulties,  aspirations,  and  achievements 
of  the  Negro  people  and  it  is  simply  an  accident  and  not  in- 
herent quality  that  accounts  for  the  fact  that  he  has  been  so 
prominent  in  the  leadership  of  the  race. 

The  final  refutation  of  defamation,  however,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  actual  achievement  of  members  of  the  race  themselves. 
The  progress  in  spite  of  handicaps  continued  to  be  amazing. 
Said  the  New  York  Sun  early  in  1907  (copied  by  the  Times) 
of  "Negroes  Who  Have  Made  Good" :  "Junius  C.  Groves  of 


332     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Kansas  produces  75,000  bushels  of  potatoes  every  year,  the 
world's  record.  Alfred  Smith  received  the  blue  ribbon  at  the 
World's  Fair  and  first  prize  in  England  for  his  Oklahoma- 
raised  cotton.  Some  of  the  thirty-five  patented  devices  of 
Granville  T.  Woods,  the  electrician,  form  part  of  the  systems 
of  the  New  York  elevated  railways  and  the  Bell  Telephone 
Company.  W.  Sidney  Pittman  drew  the  design  of  the  Collis 
P.  Huntington  memorial  building,  the  largest  and  finest  at 
Tuskegee.  Daniel  H.  Williams,  M.  D.,  of  Chicago,  was  the 
first  surgeon  to  sew  up  and  heal  a  wounded  human  heart. 
Mary  Church  Terrell  addressed  in  three  languages  at  Berlin 
recently  the  International  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Women.  Edward  H.  Morris  won  his  suit  between  Cook 
County  and  the  city  of  Chicago,  and  has  a  law  practice  worth 
$20,000  a  year." 

In  one  department  of  effort,  that  of  sport,  the  Negro  was 
especially  prominent.  In  pugilism,  a  diversion  that  has  always 
been  noteworthy  for  its  popular  appeal,  Peter  Jackson  was 
well  known  as  a  contemporary  of  John  L.  Sullivan.  George 
Dixon  was,  with  the  exception  of  one  year,  either  bantam- 
weight or  featherweight  champion  for  the  whole  of  the  period 
from  1890  to  1900;  and  Joe  Gans  was  lightweight  champion 
from  1902  to  1908.  Joe  Walcott  was  welterweight  champion 
from  1 90 1  to  1904,  and  was  succeeded  by  Dixie  Kid,  who  held 
his  place  from  1904  to  1908.  In  1908,  to  the  chagrin  of  thou- 
sands and  with  a  victory  that  occasioned  a  score  of  racial  con- 
flicts throughout  the  South  and  West  and  that  resulted  in 
several  deaths,  Jack  Johnson  became  the  heavyweight  cham- 
pion of  America,  a  position  that  he  was  destined  to  hold  for 
seven  years.  In  professional  baseball  the  Negro  was  proscribed, 
though  occasionally  a  member  of  the  race  played  on  teams  of 
the  second  group.  Of  semi-professional  teams  the  American 
Giants  and  the  Leland  Giants  of  Chicago,  and  the  Lincoln 
Giants  of  New  York,  were  popular  favorites,  and  frequently 
numbered  on  their  rolls  players  of  the  first  order  of  ability.  In 
intercollegiate  baseball  W.  C.  Matthews  of  Harvard  was  out- 
standing for  several  years  about  1904.  In  intercollegiate  foot- 
ball Lewis  at  Harvard  in  the  earlier  nineties  and  Bullock  at 
Dartmouth  a  decade  later  were  unusually  prominent,  while 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  335 

Marshall  of  Minnesota  in  1905  became  an  All- American  end. 
Pollard  of  Brown,  a  half-back,  in  1916,  and  Robeson  of  Rut- 
gers, an  end,  in  1918,  also  won  All- American  honors.  About 
the  turn  of  the  century  Major  Taylor  was  a  champion  bicycle 
rider,  and  John  B.  Taylor  of  Pennsylvania  was  an  intercollegi- 
ate champion  in  track  athletics.  Similarly  fifteen  years  later 
Binga  Dismond  of  Howard  and  Chicago,  Sol  Butler  of  Du- 
buque, and  Howard  P.  Drew  of  Southern  California  were 
destined  to  win  national  and  even  international  honors  in  track 
work.  Drew  broke  numerous  records  as  a  runner  and  Butler 
was  the  winner  in  the  broad  jump  at  the  Inter- Allied  Games  in 
the  Pershing  Stadium  in  Paris.  In  1920  E.  Gourdin  of  Har- 
vard came  prominently  forward  as  one  of  the  best  track  ath- 
letes that  institution  had  ever  had. 

In  the  face,  then,  of  the  Negro's  unquestionable  physical 
ability  and  prowess  the  supreme  criticism  that  he  was  called 
on  to  face  within  the  period  was  all  the  more  hard  to  bear. 
In  all  nations  and  in  all  ages  courage  under  fire  as  a  soldier 
has  been  regarded  as  the  sterling  test  of  manhood,  and  by  this 
standard  we  have  seen  that  in  war  the  Negro  had  more  than 
vindicated  himself.  His  very  honor  as  a  soldier  was  now  to 
be  attacked. 

In  August,  1906,  Companies  B,  C,  and  D  of  the  Twenty- 
fifth  Regiment,  United  States  Infantry,  were  stationed  at  Fort 
Brown,  Brownsville,  Texas,  where  they  were  forced  to  exer- 
cise very  great  self-restraint  in  the  face  of  daily  insults  from 
the  citizens.  On  the  night  of  the  13th  occurred  a  riot  in  which 
one  citizen  of  the  town  was  killed,  another  wounded,  and  the 
chief  of  police  injured.  The  people  of  the  town  accused  the 
soldiers  of  causing  the  riot  and  demanded  their  removal. 
Brigadier-General  E.  A.  Garlington,  Inspector  General,  was 
sent  to  find  the  guilty  men,  and,  failing  in  his  mission,  he 
recommended  dishonorable  discharge  for  the  regiment.  On 
this  recommendation  President  Roosevelt  on  November  9  dis- 
missed "without  honor"  the  entire  battalion,  disqualifying  its 
members  for  service  thereafter  in  either  the  military  or  the 
civil  employ  of  the  United  States.  When  Congress  met  in 
December  Senator  J.  B.  Foraker  of  Ohio  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  critics  of  the  President's  action,  and  in  a  ring- 


334    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ing  speech  said  of  the  discharged  men  that  "they  asked  no 
favors  because  they  were  Negroes,  but  only  justice  because  they 
were  men.''  On  January  22  the  Senate  authorized  a  general 
investigation  of  the  whole  matter,  a  special  message  from  the 
President  on  the  14th  having  revoked  the  civil  disability  of 
the  discharged  soldiers.  The  case  was  finally  disposed  of  by 
a  congressional  act  approved  March  3,  1909,  which  appointed 
a  court  of  inquiry  before  which  any  discharged  man  who 
wished  to  reenlist  had  the  burden  of  establishing  his  innocence 
— a  procedure  which  clearly  violated  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple in  law  that  a  man  is  to  be  accounted  innocent  until  he 
is  proved  guilty. 

In  connection  with  the  dishonored  soldier  of  Brownsville, 
and  indeed  with  reference  to  the  Negro  throughout  the  period, 
we  recall  Edwin  Markham's  poem,  "Dreyfus,"  *  written  for 
a  far  different  occasion  but  with  fundamental  principles  of 
justice  that  are  eternal: 


A  man  stood  stained;  France  was  one  Alp  of  hate, 
Pressing  upon  him  with  the  whole  world's  weight; 
In  all  the  circle  of  the  ancient  sun 
There  was  no  voice  to  speak  for  him — not  one; 
In  all  the  world  of  men  there  was  no  sound 
But  of  a  sword  flung  broken  to  the  ground. 

Hell  laughed  its  little  hour;  and  then  behold 
How  one  by  one  the  guarded  gates  unfold! 
Swiftly  a  sword  by  Unseen  Forces  hurled, 
And  now  a  man  rising  against  the  world ! 

II 

Oh,  import  deep  as  life  is,  deep  as  time ! 
There  is  a  Something  sacred  and  sublime 
Moving  behind  the  worlds,  beyond  our  ken, 
Weighing  the  stars,  weighing  the  deeds  of  men. 

*  It  is  here  quoted  with  the  permission  of  the  author  and  in  the  form  in 
which  it  originally  appeared  in  McClure's  Magazine,  September,  1899. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  335 

Take  heart,  O  soul  of  sorrow,  and  be  strong ! 

There  is  one  greater  than  the  whole  world's  wrong. 

Be  hushed  before  the  high  Benignant  Power 

That  moves  wool-shod  through  sepulcher  and  tower ! 

No  truth  so  low  but  He  will  give  it  crown; 

No  wrong  so  high  but  He  will  hurl  it  down. 

O  men  that  forge  the  fetter,  it  is  vain; 

There  is  a  Still  Hand  stronger  than  your  chain. 

'Tis  no  avail  to  bargain,  sneer,  and  nod, 

And  shrug  the  shoulder  for  reply  to  God. 


7.     The  Dawn  of  a  To-morrow 

The  bitter  period  that  we  have  been  considering  was  not 
wholly  without  its  bright  features,  and  with  the  new  century 
new  voices  began  to  be  articulate.  In  May,  1900,  there  was 
in  Montgomery  a  conference  in  which  Southern  men  under- 
took as  never  before  to  make  a  study  of  their  problems.  That 
some  who  came  had  yet  no  real  conception  of  the  task  and  its 
difficulties  may  be  seen  from  the  suggestion  of  one  man  that 
the  Negroes  be  deported  to  the  West  or  to  the  islands  of  the 
sea.  Several  men  advocated  the  repeal  of  the  Fifteenth  Amend- 
ment. The  position  outstanding  for  its  statesmanship  was  that 
of  ex-Governor  William  A.  McCorkle  of  West  Virginia,  who 
asserted  that  the  right  of  franchise  was  the  vital  and  under- 
lying principle  of  the  life  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
and  must  not  be  violated,  that  the  remedy  for  present  condi- 
tions was  an  "honest  and  inflexible  educational  and  property 
basis,  administered  fairly  for  black  and  white,"  and  finally 
that  the  Negro  Problem  was  not  a  local  problem  but  one  to 
be  settled  by  the  hearty  cooperation  of  all  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  ^< 

Meanwhile  the  Southern  Educational  Congress  continued 
its  sittings  from  year  to  year,  and  about  1901  there  developed 
new  and  great  interest  in  education,  the  Southern  Education 
Board  acting  in  close  cooperation  with  the  General  Education 
Board,  the  medium  of  the  philanthropy  of  John  D.  Rockefeller, 


336     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

and  frequently  also  with  the  Peabody  and  Slater  funds.*  In 
1907  came  the  announcement  of  the  Jeanes  Fund,  established 
by  Anna  T.  Jeanes,  a  Quaker  of  Philadelphia,  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  Negro  in  the  rural  districts  of  the  South;  and  in 
191 1  that  of  the  Phelps-Stokes  Fund,  established  by  Caroline 
Phelps-Stokes  with  emphasis  on  the  education  of  the  Negro 
in  Africa  and  America.  More  and  more  these  agencies  were 
to  work  in  harmony  and  cooperation  with  the  officials  in  the 
different  states  concerned.  In  1900  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  a  South- 
ern man  of  great  breadth  of  culture,  was  still  in  charge  of 
the  Peabody  and  Slater  funds,  but  he  was  soon  to  pass  from 
the  scene  and  in  the  work  now  to  be  done  were  prominent 
Robert  C.  Ogden,  Hollis  B.  Frissell,  Wallace  Buttrick,  George 
Foster  Peabody,  and  James  H.  Dillard. 

Along  with  the  mob  violence,  moreover,  that  disgraced  the 
opening  years  of  the  century  was  an  increasing  number  of 
officers  who  were  disposed  to  do  their  duty  even  under  trying 
circumstances.  Less  than  two  months  after  his  notorious  in- 
augural Governor  Vardaman  of  Mississippi  interested  the 
reading  public  by  ordering  out  a  company  of  militia  when  a 
lynching  was  practically  announced  to  take  place,  and  by  board- 
ing a  special  train  to  the  scene  to  save  the  Negro.  In  this 
same  state  in  1909,  when  the  legislature  passed  a  law  levying 
a  tax  for  the  establishment  of  agricultural  schools  for  white 
students,  and  levied  this  on  the  property  of  white  people  and 
Negroes  alike,  though  only  the  white  people  were  to  have 
schools,  a  Jasper  County  Negro  contested  the  matter  before 
the  Chancery  Court,  which  declared  the  law  unconstitutional, 
and  he  was  further  supported  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
state.  Such  a  decision  was  inspiring,  but  it  was  not  the  rule, 
and  already  the  problems  of  another  decade  were  being  fore- 
shadowed. Already  also  under  the  stress  of  conditions  in  the 
South  many  Negroes  were  seeking  a  haven  in  the  North.  By 
1900  there  were  as  many  Negroes  in  Pennsylvania  as  in  Mis- 

*  In  1867  George  Peabody,  an  American  merchant  and  patriot,  estab- 
lished the  Peabody  Educational  Fund  for  the  purpose  of  promoting 
"intellectual,  moral,  and  industrial  education  in  the  most  destitute  portion 
of  the  Southern  states."  The  John  F.  Slater  Fund  was  established  in 
1882  especially  for  the  encouragement  of  the  industrial  education  of 
Negroes. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  337 

souri,  whereas  twenty  years  before  there  had  been  twice  as 
many  in  the  latter  state.  There  were  in  Massachusetts  more 
than  in  Delaware,  whereas  twenty  years  before  Delaware  had 
had  50  per  cent  more  than  Massachusetts.  Within  twenty 
years  Virginia  gained  312,000  white  people  and  only  29,000 
Negroes,  the  latter  having  begun  a  steady  movement  to  New 
York.  North  Carolina  gained  400,000  white  people  and  only 
93,000  Negroes.  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi,  however, 
were  not  yet  affected  in  large  measure  by  the  movement. 

The  race  indeed  was  beginning  to  be  possessed  by  a  new 
consciousness.   After  1895  Booker  T.  Washington  was  a  very 
genuine  leader.    From  the  first,  however,  there  was  a  distinct 
group  of  Negro  men  who  honestly  questioned  the  ultimate  wis- 
dom of  the  so-called  Atlanta  Compromise,  and  who  felt  that 
in  seeming  to  be  willing  temporarily  to  accept  proscription  and 
to  waive  political  rights  Dr.   Washington  had  given  up  too 
much.    Sometimes  also  there  was  something  in  his  illustra- 
tions of  the  effects  of  current  methods  of  education  that  pro- 
voked reply.    Those  who  were  of  the  opposition,  however, 
were  not  at  first  united  and  constructive,  and  in  their  utter- 
ances  they   sometimes   offended   by  harshness   of   tone.     Dr. 
Washington  himself  said  of  the  extremists  in  this  group  that 
they   frequently  understood  theories  but  not  things;  that  in 
college  they  gave  little  thought  to  preparing  for  any  definite 
task  in  the  world,  but  started  out  with  the  idea  of  preparing 
themselves  to  solve  the  race  problem;  and  that  many  of  them 
made  a  business  of  keeping  the  troubles,  wrongs,  and  hard- 
ships of  the  Negro  race  before  the  public*    There  was  ample 
ground  for  this  criticism.    More  and  more,  however,  the  oppo- 
sition gained  force;  the  Guardian,  a  weekly  paper  edited  in 
Boston  by  Monroe  Trotter,  was  particularly  outspoken,  and  in 
Boston  the  real  climax  came  in  1903  in  an  endeavor  to  break 
up  a  meeting  at  which  Dr.  Washington  was  to  speak.    Then, 
beginning  in  January,  1904,  the  Voice  of  the  Negro,  a  maga- 
zine published  in  Atlanta   for  three  years,   definitely  helped 
toward  the  cultivation  of   racial  ideals.    Publication  of  the 
periodical  became  irregular  after  the  Atlanta  Massacre,  and 

*  See  chapter  "The  Intellectuals,"  in  My  Larger  Education. 


338    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

it  finally  expired  in  1907.  Some  of  the  articles  dealt  with 
older  and  more  philosophical  themes,  but  there  were  also  bright 
and  illuminating  studies  in  education  and  other  social  topics, 
as  well  as  a  strong  stand  on  political  issues.  The  Colored 
American,  published  in  Boston  just  a  few  years  before  the 
Voice  began  to  appear,  also  did  inspiring  work.  Various  local 
)r  state  organizations,  moreover,  from  time  to  time  showed 
the  virtue  of  cooperation;  thus  the  Georgia  Equal  Rights  Con- 
vention, assembled  in  Macon  in  February,  1906,  at  the  call 
of  William  J.  White,  the  veteran  editor  of  the  Georgia  Bap- 
tist, brought  together  representative  men  from  all  over  the 
state  and  considered  such  topics  as  the  unequal  division  of 
school  taxes,  the  deprivation  of  the  jury  rights  of  Negroes, 
the  peonage  system,  and  the  penal  system.  In  1905  twenty- 
nine  men  of  the  race  launched  what  was  known  as  the  Niagara 
Movement.  The  aims  of  this  organization  were  freedom  of 
speech  and  criticism,  an  unlettered  and  unsubsidized  press, 
manhood  suffrage,  the  abolition  of  all  caste  distinctions  based 
simply  on  race  and  color,  the  recognition  of  the  principle  of 
human  brotherhood  as  a  practical  present  creed,  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  highest  and  best  training  as  the  monopoly  of  no 
class  or  race,  a  belief  in  the  dignity  of  labor,  and  united  effort 
torealize  these  ideals  under  wise  and  courageous  leadership. 
The  time  was  not  yet  quite  propitious,  and  the  Niagara  Move- 
ment as  such  died  after  three  or  four  years.  Its  principles  lived 
on,  however,  and  it  greatly  helped  toward  the  formation  of  a 
stronger  and  more  permanent  organization. 

In  1909  a  number  of  people  who  were  interested  in  the  gen- 
eral effect  of  the  Negro  Problem  on  democracy  in  America 
organized  in  New  York  the  National  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Colored  People.*  It  was  felt  that  the  situa- 
tion had  become  so  bad  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  simple 
declaration  of  human  rights.  In  1910  Moorfield  Storey,  a  dis- 
tinguished lawyer  of  Boston,  became  national  president,  and 
W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois  director  of  publicity  and  research, 
and  editor  of  the  Crisis,  which  periodical  began  publication 

*  For  detailed  statement  of  origin  see  pamphlet,  "How  the  National 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People  Began,"  by  Mary- 
White  Ovington,  published  by  the  Association. 


"THE  VALE  OF  TEARS,"  1890-1910  339 

in  November  of  this  year.  The  organization  was  successful 
from  the  first,  and  local  branches  were  formed  all  over  the 
country,  some  years  elapsing,  however,  before  the  South  was 
penetrated.  Said  the  Director:  "Of  two  things  we  Negroes 
have  dreamed  for  many  years :  An  organization  so  effective 
and  so  powerful  that  when  discrimination  and  injustice  touched 
one  Negro,  it  would  touch  12,000,000.  We  have  not  got  this 
yet,  but  we  have  taken  a  great  step  toward  it.  We  have 
dreamed,  too,  of  an  organization  that  would  work  ceaselessly 
to  make  Americans  know  that  the  so-called  'Negro  problem' 
is  simply  one  phase  of  the  vaster  problem  of  democracy  in 
America,  and  that  those  who  wish  freedom  and  justice  for 
their  country  must  wish  it  for  every  black  citizen.  This  is  the 
great  and  insistent  message  of  the  National  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Colored  People." 

This  organization  is  outstanding  as  an  effort  in  cooperation 
between  the  races  for  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the 
Negro.  Of  special  interest  along  the  line  of  economic  better- 
ment has  been  the  National  League  on  Urban  Conditions 
among  Negroes,  now  known  as  the  National  Urban  League, 
which  also  has  numerous  branches  with  headquarters  in  New 
York  and  through  whose  offices  thousands  of  Negroes  have 
been  placed  in  honorable  employment.  The  National  Urban 
League  was  also  formally  organized  in  19 10;  it  represented  a 
merging  of  the  different  agencies  working  in  New  York  City 
in  behalf  of  the  social  betterment  of  the  Negro  population, 
especially  of  the  National  League  for  the  Protection  of  Colored 
Women  and  of  the  Committee  for  Improving  the  Industrial 
Conditions  among  Negroes  in  New  York,  both  of  which  agen- 
cies had  been  organized  in  1906.  As  we  shall  see,  the  work 
of  the  League  was  to  be  greatly  expanded  within  the  next 
decade  by  the  conditions  brought  about  by  the  war ;  and  under 
the  direction  of  the  executive  secretary,  Eugene  Kinckle  Jones, 
with  the  assistance  of  alert  and  patriotic  officers,  its  work  was 
to  prove  one  of  genuinely  national  service. 

Interesting  also  was  a  new  concern  on  the  part  of  the  young 
Southern  college  man  about  the  problems  at  his  door.  Within 
just  a  few  years  after  the  close  of  the  period  now  considered, 
Phelps-Stokes  fellowships  for  the  study  of  problems  relating 


34Q    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

to  the  Negro  were  founded  at  the  Universities  of  Virginia  and 
Georgia;  it  was  expected  that  similar  fellowships  would  be 
founded  in  other  institutions ;  and  there  was  interest  in  the 
annual  meetings  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress  and 
theJUniversity  Commission  on  Southern  Race  Questions. 

Thus  from  one  direction  and  another  at  length  broke  upon 
a  'Vale  of  tears"  a  new  day  of  effort  and  of  hope.  For  the 
real  contest  the  forces  were  gathering.  The  next  decade  was 
to  be  one  of  unending  bitterness  and  violence,  but  also  one  in 
which  the  Negro  was  to  rise  as  never  before  to  the  dignity  of 
self-reliant  and  courageous  manhood. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE 

i.     Character  of  the  Period 

The  decade  19 10-1920,  momentous  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  in  the  history  of  the  Negro  race  in  America  must 
finally  be  regarded  as  the  period  of  a  great  spiritual  uprising 
against  the  proscription,  the  defamation,  and  the  violence  of 
the  preceding  twenty  years.  As  never  before  the  Negro  began 
to  realize  that  the  ultimate  burden  of  his  salvation  rested  upon 
himself,  and  he  learned  to  respect  and  to  depend  upon  himself 
accordingly. 

The  decade  naturally  divides  into  two  parts,  that  before  and 
that  after  the  beginning  of  the  Great  War  in  Europe.  Even 
in  the  earlier  years,  however,  the  tendencies  that  later  were 
dominant  were  beginning  to  be  manifest.  The  greater  part  of 
the  ten  years  was  consumed  by  the  two  administrations  of 
President  Woodrow  Wilson;  and  not  only  did  the  National 
Government  in  the  course  of  these  administrations  discrim- 
inate openly  against  persons  of  Negro  descent  in  the  Federal 
service  and  fail  to  protect  those  who  happened  to  live  in  the 
capital,  but  its  policy  also  gave  encouragement  to  outrage  in 
places  technically  said  to  be  beyond  its  jurisdiction.  A  great 
war  was  to  give  new  occasion  and  new  opportunity  for  dis- 
crimination, defamatory  propaganda  was  to  be  circulated  on 
a  scale  undreamed  of  before,  and  the  close  of  the  war  was 
to  witness  attempts  for  a  new  reign  of  terror  in  the  South. 
Even  beyond  the  bounds  of  continental  America  the  race  was 
now  to  suffer  by  reason  of  the  national  policy,  and  the  little 
republic  of  Hayti  to  lift  its  bleeding  hands  to  the  calm  judg- 
ment of  the  world. 

Both  a  cause  and  a  result  of  the  struggle  through  which  the 
race  was  now  to  pass  was  its  astonishing  progress.   The  fiftieth 


342     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

anniversary  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation — January  I, 
1 91 3 — called  to  mind  as  did  nothing  else  the  proscription  and 
the  mistakes,  but  also  the  successes  and  the  hopes  of  the  Negro 
people  in  America.  Throughout  the  South  disfranchisement 
seemed  almost  complete;  and  yet,  after  many  attempts,  the 
movement  finally  failed  in  Maryland  in  191 1  and  in  Arkansas 
in  19 1 2.  In  1915,  moreover,  the  disfranchising  act  of  Okla- 
homa was  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court,  and  henceforth  the  Negro  could  feel  that  the 
highest  legal  authority  was  no  longer  on  the  side  of  those  who 
sought  to  deprive  him  of  all  political  voice.  Eleven  years  be- 
fore, the  Court  had  taken  refuge  in  technicalities.  The  year 
191 1  was  also  marked  by  the  appointment  of  the  first  Negro 
policeman  in  New  York,  by  the  election  of  the  first  Negro 
legislator  in  Pennsylvania,  and  by  the  appointment  of  a  man 
of  the  race,  William  H.  Lewis,  as  Assistant  Attorney  General 
of  the  United  States;  and  several  civil  rights  suits  were  won 
in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey.  Banks,  insur- 
ance companies,  and  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises  were 
constantly  being  capitalized;  churches  erected  more  and  more 
stately  edifices ;  and  fraternal  organizations  constantly  increased 
in  membership  and  wealth.  By  191 3  the  Odd  Fellows  num- 
bered very  nearly  half  a  million  members  and  owned  property 
worth  two  and  a  half  million  dollars;  in  1920  the  Dunbar 
Amusement  Corporation  of  Philadelphia  erected  a  theater  cost- 
ing $400,000;  and  the  foremost  business  woman  of  the  race 
in  the  decade,  Mme.  C.  J.  Walker,  on  the  simple  business  of 
toilet  articles  and  hair  preparations  built  up  an  enterprise  of 
national  scope  and  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
regularly  governing  great  American  commercial  organizations. 
Fifty  years  after  emancipation,  moreover,  very  nearly  one- 
fourth  of  all  the  Negroes  in  the  Southern  states  were  living 
in  homes  that  they  themselves  owned;  thus  430,449  of  1,917,- 
391  houses  occupied  in  these  states  were  reported  in  19 10  as 
owned,  and  314,340  were  free  of  all  encumbrance.  The  per- 
centage of  illiteracy  decreased  from  70  in  1880  to  30.4  in 
1 9 10,  and  movements  were  under  way  for  the  still  more  rapid 
spread  of  elementary  knowledge.  Excellent  high  schools,  such 
as  those  in  St.  Louis,  Washington,  Kansas  City   (both  cities 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  343 

of  this  name),  Louisville,  Baltimore,  and  other  cities  and  towns 
in  the  border  states  and  sometimes  as  far  away  as  Texas,  were 
setting  a  standard  such  as  was  in  accord  with  the  best  in  the 
country;  and  in  one  year,  19 17,  455  young  people  of  the  race 
received  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts,  while  throughout  the 
decade  different  ones  received  honors  and  took  the  highest 
graduate  degrees  at  the  foremost  institutions  of  learning  in 
the  country.  Early  in  the  decade  the  General  Education  Board 
began  actively  to  assist  in  the  work  of  the  higher  educational 
institutions,  and  an  outstanding  gift  was  that  of  half  a  million 
dollars  to  Fisk  University  in  1920.  Meanwhile,  through  the 
National  Urban  League  and  hundreds  of  local  clubs  and  wel- 
fare organizations,  social  betterment  went  forward,  much  im- 
petus being  given  to  the  work  by  the  National  Association  of 
Colored  Women's  Clubs  organized  in  1896. 

Along  with  its  progress,  throughout  the  decade  the  race  had 
to  meet  increasing  bitterness  and  opposition,  and  this  was  in- 
tensified by  the  motion  picture,  "The  Birth  of  a  Nation,"  built 
on  lines  similar  to  those  of  The  Clansman,  Negro  men  stand- 
ing high  on  civil  service  lists  were  sometimes  set  aside;  in  19 13 
the  white  railway  mail  clerks  of  the  South  began  an  open 
campaign  against  Negroes  in  the  service  in  direct  violation 
of  the  rules ;  and  a  little  later  in  the  same  year  segregation  in 
the  different  departments  became  notorious.  In  191 1  the  Amer- 
ican Bar  Association  raised  the  question  of  the  color-line ;  and 
efforts  for  the  restriction  of  Negroes  to  certain  neighborhoods 
in  different  prominent  cities  sometimes  resulted  in  violence,  as 
in  the  dynamiting  of  the  homes  of  Negroes  in  Kansas  City, 
Missouri,  in  191 1.  When  the  Progressive  party  was  organized  « 
in  19 1 2  the  Negro  was  given  to  understand  that  his  support 
was  not  sought,  and  in  191 1  a  strike  of  firemen  on  the  Queen 
and  Crescent  Railroad  was  in  its  main  outlines  similar  to  the 
trouble  on  the  Georgia  Railroad  two  years  before.  Meanwhile  | 
in  the  South  the  race  received  only  18  per  cent  of  the  total 
expenditures  for  education,  although  it  constituted  more  than 
30  per  cent  of  the  population. 

Worse  than  anything  else,  however,  was  the  matter  of  lynch- 
ing. In  each  year  the  total  number  of  victims  of  illegal  execu- 
tion continued  to  number  three-  or  fourscore ;  but  no  one  could 


344    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ever  be  sure  that  every  instance  had  been  recorded.  Between 
the  opening  of  the  decade  and  the  time  of  the  entrance  of  the 
United  States  into  the  war,  five  cases  were  attended  by  such 
unusual  circumstances  that  the  public  could  not  soon  forget 
them.  At  Coatesville,  Pennsylvania,  not  far  from  Philadelphia, 
on  August  12,  191 1,  a  Negro  laborer,  Zach  Walker,  while 
drunk,  fatally  shot  a  night  watchman.  He  was  pursued  and 
attempted  suicide.  Wounded,  he  was  brought  to  town  and 
placed  in  the  hospital.  From  this  place  he  was  taken  chained 
to  his  cot,  dragged  for  some  miles,  and  then  tortured  and 
burned  to  death  in  the  presence  of  a  great  crowd  of  people, 
including  many  women,  and  his  bones  and  the  links  of  the 
chain  which  bound  him  distributed  as  souvenirs.  At  Monti- 
cello,  Georgia,  in  January,  191 5,  when  a  Negro  family  resisted 
an  officer  who  was  making  an  arrest,  the  father,  Dan  Barbour, 
his  young  son,  and  his  two  daughters  were  all  hanged  to  a 
tree  and  their  bodies  riddled  with  bullets.  Before  the  close  of 
the  year  there  was  serious  trouble  in  the  southwestern  portion 
of  the  state,  and  behind  this  lay  all  the  evils  of  the  system  of 
peonage  in  the  black  belt.  Driven  to  desperation  by  the  mis- 
treatment accorded  them  in  the  raising  of  cotton,  the  Negroes 
at  last  killed  an  overseer  who  had  whipped  a  Negro  boy.  A 
reign  of  terror  was  then  instituted;  churches,  society  halls, 
and  homes  were  burnt,  and  several  individuals  shot.  On  Decem- 
ber 30  there  was  a  wholesale  lynching  of  six  Negroes  in  Early 
County.  Less  than  three  weeks  afterwards  a  sheriff  who  at- 
tempted to  arrest  some  more  Negroes  and  who  was  accom- 
panied by  a  mob  was  killed.  Then  (January  20,  191 6)  five 
Negroes  who  had  been  taken  from  the  jail  in  Worth  County 
were  rushed  in  automobiles  into  Lee  County  adjoining,  and 
hanged  and  shot.  On  May  15,  191 6,  at  Waco,  Texas,  Jesse 
Washington,  a  sullen  and  overgrown  boy  of  seventeen,  who 
worked  for  a  white  farmer  named  Fryar  at  the  town  of  Robin- 
son, six  miles  away,  and  who  one  week  before  had  criminally 
assaulted  and  killed  Mrs.  Fryar,  after  unspeakable  mutilation 
was  burned  in  the  heart  of  the  town.  A  part  of  the  torture 
consisted  in  stabbing  with  knives  and  the  cutting  off  of  the 
boy's  fingers  as  he  grabbed  the  chain  by  which  he  was  bound. 
Finally,  on  October  21,   19 16,  Anthony  Crawford,  a  Negro 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  345 

farmer  of  Abbeville,  South  Carolina,  who  owned  four  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  acres  of  the  best  cotton  land  in  his  county 
and  who  was  reported  to  be  worth  $20,000,  was  lynched.  He 
had  come  to  town  to  the  store  of  W.  D.  Barksdale  to  sell  a 
load  of  cotton-seed,  and  the  two  men  had  quarreled  about  the 
price,  although  no  blow  was  struck  on  either  side.  A  little  later, 
however,  Crawford  was  arrested  by  a  local  policeman  and  a 
crowd  of  idlers  from  the  public  square  rushed  to  give  him  a 
whipping  for  his  "impudence."  He  promptly  knocked  down 
the  ringleader  with  a  hammer.  The  mob  then  set  upon  him, 
nearly  killed  him,  and  at  length  threw  him  into  the  jail.  A  few 
hours  later,  fearing  that  the  sheriff  would  secretly  remove  the 
prisoner,  it  returned,  dragged  the  wounded  man  forth,  and 
then  hanged  and  shot  him,  after  which  proceedings  warning 
was  sent  to  his  family  to  leave  the  county  by  the  middle  of 
the  next  month.  ^ — . 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  these  five  noteworthy  occurrences, 
in  only  one  case  was  there  any  question  of  criminal  assault. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  one  case  two  young  women  were  in- 
cluded among  the  victims ;  another  was  really  a  series  of  lynch- 
ings  emphasizing  the  lot  of  some  Negroes  under  a  vicious 
economic  system ;  and  the  last  simply  grew  out  of  the  jealousy 
and  hatred  aroused  by  a  Negro  of  independent  means  who 
knew  how  to  stand  up  for  his  rights. 

Such  was  the  progress,  such  also  the  violence  that  the  Negro 
witnessed  during  the  decade.  Along  with  his  problems  at 
home  he  now  began  to  have  a  new  interest  in  those  of  his  kin 
across  the  sea,  and  this  feeling  was  intensified  by  the  world 
war.  It  raises  questions  of  such  far-reaching  importance,  how- 
ever, that  it  must  receive  separate  and  distinct  treatment. 

2.     Migration;  East  St.  Louis 

Very  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  Great  War  in  Europe 
there  began  what  will  ultimately  be  known  as  the  most  remark- 
able migratory  movement  in  the  history  of  the  Negro  in 
America.  Migration  had  indeed  at  no  time  ceased  since  the 
great  movement  of  1879,  but  for  the  most  part  it  had  been 


346     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

merely  personal  and  not  in  response  to  any  great  emergency. 
The  sudden  ceasing  of  the  stream  of  immigration  from  Eu- 
rope, however,  created  an  unprecedented  demand  for  labor 
in  the  great  industrial  centers  of  the  North,  and  business  men 
were  not  long  in  realizing  the  possibilities  of  a  source  that 
had  as  yet  been  used  in  only  the  slightest  degree.  Special 
^agents  undoubtedly  worked  in  some  measure;  but  the  out- 
/  standing  feature  of  the  new  migration  was  that  it  was  pri- 
marily a  mass  movement  and  not  one  organized  or  encouraged 
by  any  special  group  of  leaders.  Labor  was  needed  in  rail- 
road construction,  in  the  steel  mills,  in  the  tobacco  farms  of 
Connecticut,  and  in  the  packing-houses,  foundries,  and  auto- 
mobile plants.  In  191 5  the  New  England  tobacco  growers 
hastily  got  together  in  New  York  two  hundred  girls;  but 
these  proved  to  be  unsatisfactory,  and  it  was  realized  that  the 
labor  supply  would  have  to  be  more  carefully  supervised. 
In  January,  19 16,  the  management  of  the  Continental  Tobacco 
Corporation  definitely  decided  on  the  policy  of  importing 
workers  from  the  South,  and  within  the  next  year  not  less 
than  three  thousand  Negroes  came  to  Hartford,  several  hun- 
dred being  students  from  the  schools  and  colleges  who  went 
North  to  work  for  the  summer.  In  the  same  summer  came 
also  train-loads  of  Negroes  from  Jacksonville  and  other  points 
to  work  for  the  Erie  and  Pennsylvania  Railroads. 

Those  who  left  their  homes  in  the  South  to  find  new  ones  in 
the  North  thus  worked  first  of  all  in  response  to  a  new  eco- 
nomic demand.  Prominent  in  their  thought  to  urge  them  on, 
however,  were  the  generally  unsatisfactory  conditions  in  the 
South  from  which  they  had  so  long  suffered  and  from  which 
all  too  often  there  had  seemed  to  be  no  escape.  As  it  was, 
they  were  sometimes  greatly  embarrassed  in  leaving.  In 
Jacksonville  the  city  council  passed  an  ordinance  requiring 
that  agents  who  wished  to  recruit  labor  to  be  sent  out  of  the 
state  should  pay  $1,000  for  a  license  or  suffer  a  fine  of  $600 
and  spend  sixty  days  in  jail.  Macon,  Ga.,  raised  the  license 
fee  to  $25,000.  In  Savannah  the  excitement  was  intense. 
When  two  trains  did  not  move  as  it  was  expected  that  they 
would,  three  hundred  Negroes  paid  their  own  fares  and  went 
North.     Later,  when  the  leaders  of  the  movement  could  not 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  347 

be  found,  the  police  arrested  one  hundred  of  the  Negroes  and 
sent  them  to  the  police  barracks,  charging  them  with  loitering. 
Similar  scenes  were  enacted  elsewhere,  the  South  being  then 
as  ever  unwilling  to  be  deprived  of  its  labor  supply.  Mean- 
while wages  for  some  men  in  such  an  industrial  center  as 
Birmingham  leaped  to  $9  and  $10  a  day.  All  told,  hardly 
less  than  three- fourths  of  a  million  Negroes  went  North  within 
the  four  years  191 5- 19 18. 

Naturally  such  a  great  shifting  of  population  did  not  take 
place  without  some  inconvenience  and  hardship.  Among  the 
thousands  who  changed  their  place  of  residence  were 
many  ignorant  and  improvident  persons;  but  sometimes  it 
was  the  most  skilled  artisans  and  the  most  substantial  owners 
of  homes  in  different  communities  who  sold  their  property 
and  moved  away.  In  the  North  they  at  once  met  congestion 
in  housing  facilities.  In  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburgh  this  con- 
dition became  so  bad  as  to  demand  immediate  attention.  In 
more  than  one  place  there  were  outbreaks  in  which  lives  were 
lost.  In  East  St.  Louis,  111.,  all  of  the  social  problems  raised 
by  the  movement  were  seen  in  their  baldest  guise.  The  original 
population  of  this  city  had  come  for  the  most  part  from 
Georgia,  Mississippi,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee.  It  had  long 
been  an  important  industrial  center.  It  was  also  a  very  rough 
place,  the  scene  of  prize-fights  and  cock-fights  and  a  haven 
for  escaped  prisoners;  and  there  was  very  close  connection 
between  the  saloons  and  politics.  For  years  the  managers  of 
the  industrial  plants  had  recruited  their  labor  supply  from 
Ellis  Island.  When  this  failed  they  turned  to  the  Negroes 
of  the  South ;  and  difficulties  were  aggravated  by  a  series  of 
strikes  on  the  part  of  the  white  workers.  By  the  spring  of 
19 1 7  not  less  than  ten  thousand  Negroes  had  recently  arrived 
in  the  city,  and  the  housing  situation  was  so  acute  that  these 
people  were  more  and  more  being  forced  into  the  white  locali- 
ties. Sometimes  Negroes  who  had  recently  arrived  wandered 
aimlessly  about  the  streets,  where  they  met  the  rougher  ele- 
ments of  the  city;  there  were  frequent  fights  and  also  much 
trouble  on  the  street  cars.  The  Negroes  interested  themselves 
in  politics  and  even  succeeded  in  placing  in  office  several  men 


348     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  their  choice.  In  February,  19 17,  there  was  a  strike  of  the 
white  workers  at  the  Aluminum  Ore  Works.  This  was  ad- 
justed at  the  time,  but  the  settlement  was  not  permanent,  and 
meanwhile  there  were  almost  daily  arrivals  from  the  South, 
and  the  East  St.  Louis  Journal  was  demanding-:  "Make  East 
St.  Louis  a  Lily  White  Town."  There  were  preliminary  riots 
on  May  27-30.  On  the  night  of  July  1  men  in  automobiles 
rode  through  the  Negro  section  and  began  firing  promiscuous- 
ly. The  next  day  the  massacre  broke  forth  in  all  its  fury,  and 
before  it  was  over  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  prop- 
erty had  been  destroyed,  six  thousand  Negroes  had  been  driven 
from  their  homes,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  shot, 
burned,  hanged,  or  maimed  for  life.  Officers  of  the  law 
failed  to  do  their  duty,  and  the  testimony  of  victims  as  to 
the  torture  inflicted  upon  them  was  such  as  to  send  a  thrill 
of  horror  through  the  heart  of  the  American  people.  Later 
there  was  a  congressional  investigation,  but  from  this  nothing 
very  material  resulted.  In  the  last  week  of  this  same  month, 
July,  19 1 7,  there  were  also  serious  outbreaks  in  both  Chester 
and  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  the  fundamental  issues  being  the 
same  as  in  East  St.  Louis. 

Meanwhile  welfare  organizations  earnestly  labored  to  ad- 
just the  Negro  in  his  new  environment.  In  Chicago  the  dif- 
ferent state  clubs  helped  nobly.  Greater  than  any  other  one 
agency,  however,  was  the  National  Urban  League,  whose 
work  now  witnessed  an  unprecedented  expansion.  Represen- 
tative was  the  work  of  the  Detroit  branch,  which  was  not  con- 
tent merely  with  finding  vacant  positions,  but  approached 
manufacturers  of  all  kinds  through  distribution  of  literature 
and  by  personal  visits,  and  within  twelve  months  was  suc- 
cessful in  placing  not  less  than  one  thousand  Negroes  in  em- 
ployment other  than  unskilled  labor.  It  also  established  a 
bureau  of  investigation  and  information  regarding  housing 
conditions,  and  generally  aimed  at  the  proper  moral  and  social 
care  of  those  who  needed  its  service.  The  whole  problem  of 
the  Negro  was  of  such  commanding  importance  after  the 
United  States  entered  the  war  as  to  lead  to  the  creation  of 
a  special  Division  of  Negro  Economics  in  the  office  of  the 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  349 

Secretary  of  Labor,  to  the  directorship  of  which  Dr.  George 
E.  Haynes  was  called. 

In  January,  19 18,  a  Conference  of  Migration  was  called  in 
New  York  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Urban  League, 
and  this  placed  before  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
resolutions  asking  that  Negro  labor  be  considered  on  the  same 
basis  as  white.  The  Federation  had  long  been  debating  the 
whole  question  of  the  Negro,  and  it  had  not  seemed  to  be  able 
to  arrive  at  a  clearcut  policy  though  its  general  attitude  was 
unfavorable.  In  19 19,  however,  it  voted  to  take  steps  to 
recognize  and  admit  Negro  unions.  At  last  it  seemed  to 
realize  the  necessity  of  making  allies  of  Negro  workers,  and 
of  course  any  such  change  of  front  on  the  part  of  white  work- 
men would  menace  some  of  the  foundations  of  racial  strife 
in  the  South  and  indeed  in  the  country  at  large.  Just  how 
effective  the  new  decision  was  to  be  in  actual  practice  remained 
to  be  seen,  especially  as  the  whole  labor  movement  was  thrown 
on  the  defensive  by  the  end  of  1920.  However,  special  in- 
terest attached  to  the  events  in  Bogalusa,  La.,  in  November, 
1 91 9.  Here  were  the  headquarters  of  the  Great  Southern 
Lumber  Company,  whose  sawmill  in  the  place  was  said  to 
be  the  largest  in  the  world.  For  some  time  it  had  made  use 
of  unorganized  Negro  labor  as  against  the  white  labor  unions. 
The  forces  of  labor,  however,  began  to  organize  the  Negroes 
in  the  employ  of  the  Company,  which  held  political  as  well 
as  capitalistic  control  in  the  community.  The  Company  then 
began  to  have  Negroes  arrested  on  charges  of  vagrancy,  tak- 
ing them  before  the  city  court  and  having  them  fined  and 
turned  over  to  the  Company  to  work  out  the  fines  under 
the  guard  of  gunmen.  In  the  troubles  that  came  to  a  head 
on  November  22,  three  white  men  were  shot  and  killed,  one 
of  them  being  the  district  president  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor,  who  was  helping  to  give  protection  to  a  colored 
organizer.  The  full  significance  of  this  incident  remained 
also  to  be  seen ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  in  the  final  history 
of  the  Negro  problem  the  skirmish  at  Bogalusa  will  mark  the 
beginning  of  the  end  of  the  exploiting  of  Negro  labor  and  the 
first  recognition  of  the  identity  of  interest  between  white  and 
black  workmen  in  the  South. 


350    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 
3.     The  Great  War 

Just  on  the  eve  of  America's  entrance  into  the  war  in  Europe 
occurred  an  incident  that  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Negro 
at  least  must  finally  appear  simply  as  the  prelude  to  the  great 
contest  to  come.  Once  more,  at  an  unexpected  moment,  ten 
years  after  Brownsville,  the  loyalty  and  heroism  of  the  Negro 
soldier  impressed  the  American  people.  The  expedition  of 
the  American  forces  into  Mexico  in  19 16,  with  the  political 
events  attending  this,  is  a  long  story.  The  outstanding  inci- 
dent, however,  was  that  in  which  two  troops  of  the  Tenth 
Cavalry  engaged.  About  eighty  men  had  been  sent  a  long 
distance  from  the  main  line  of  the  American  army,  their 
errand  being  supposedly  the  pursuit  of  a  deserter.  At  or 
near  the  town  of  Carrizal  the  Americans  seem  to  have  chosen 
to  go  through  the  town  rather  than  around  it,  and  the  result 
was  a  clash  in  which  Captain  Boyd,  who  commanded  the  de- 
tachment, and  some  twenty  of  his  men  were  killed,  twenty- 
two  others  being  captured  by  the  Mexicans.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances the  whole  venture  was  rather  imprudent  in  the 
first  place.  As  to  the  engagement  itself,  the  Mexicans  said 
that  the  American  troops  made  the  attack,  while  the  latter 
said  that  the  Mexicans  themselves  first  opened  fire.  However 
this  may  have  been,  all  other  phases  of  the  Mexican  problem 
seemed  for  the  moment  to  be  forgotten  at  Washington  in 
the  demand  for  the  release  of  the  twenty-two  men  who  had 
been  taken.  There  was  no  reason  for  holding  them,  and 
they  were  brought  up  to  El  Paso  within  a  few  days  and 
sent  across  the  line.  Thus,  though  "some  one  had  blundered," 
these  Negro  soldiers  did  their  duty;  "theirs  not  to  make  reply; 
theirs  but  to  do  and  die."  So  in  the  face  of  odds  they  fought 
like  heroes  and  twenty  died  beneath  the  Mexican  stars. 

When  the  United  States  entered  the  war  in  Europe  in 
April,  19 1 7,  the  question  of  overwhelming  importance  to  the 
Negro  people  was  naturally  that  of  their  relation  to  the  great 
conflict  in  which  their  country  had  become  engaged.  Their 
response  to  the  draft  call  set  a  noteworthy  example  of  loyalty 
to  all  other  elements  in  the  country.     At  the  very  outset  the 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  351 

race  faced  a  terrible  dilemma:  If  there  were  to  be  special 
training  camps  for  officers,  and  if  the  National  Government 
would  make  no  provision  otherwise,  did  it  wish  to  have  a 
special  camp  for  Negroes,  such  as  would  give  formal 
approval  to  a  policy  of  segregation,  or  did  it  wish  to 
have  no  camp  at  all  on  such  terms  and  thus  lose  the  opportu- 
nity to  have  any  men  of  the  race  specially  trained  as  officers  ? 
The  camp  was  'secured — Camp  Dodge,  near  Des  Moines, 
Iowa;  and  throughout  the  summer  of  19 17  the  work  of  train- 
ing went  forward,  the  heart  of  a  harassed  and  burdened  peo- 
ple responding  more  and  more  with  pride  to  the  work  of  their 
men.  On  October  15,  625  became  commissioned  officers, 
and  all  told  1200  received  commissions.  To  the  fighting  forces 
of  the  United  States  the  race  furnished  altogether  very  nearly 
400,000  men,  of  whom  just  a  little  more  than  half  actually 
saw  service  in  Europe. 

Negro  men  served  in  all  branches  of  the  military  establish- 
ment and  also  as  surveyors  and  draftsmen.  For  the  handling 
of  many  of  the  questions  relating  to  them  Emmett  J.  Scott 
was  on  October  1,  191 7,  appointed  Special  Assistant  to  the 
Secretary  of  War.  Mr.  Scott  had  for  a  number  of  years  as- 
sisted Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington  as  secretary  at  Tuskegee 
Institute,  and  in  1909  he  was  one  of  the  three  members  of  the 
special  commission  appointed  by  President  Taft  for  the  inves- 
tigation of  Liberian  affairs.  Negro  nurses  were  authorized 
by  the  War  Department  for  service  in  base  hospitals  at  six 
army  camps,  and  women  served  also  as  canteen  workers  in 
France  and  in  charge  of  hostess  houses  in  the  United  States. 
Sixty  Negro  men  served  as  chaplains;  350  as  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
secretaries ;  and  others  in  special  capacities.  Service  of  excep- 
tional value  was  rendered  by  Negro  women  in  industry,  and 
very  largely  also  they  maintained  and  promoted  the  food 
supply  through  agriculture  at  the  same  time  that  they  re- 
leased men  for  service  at  the  front.  Meanwhile  the  race  in- 
vested millions  of  dollars  in  Liberty  Bonds  and  War  Savings 
stamps  and  contributed  generously  to  the  Red  Cross,  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  and  other  relief  agencies.  In  the  summer  of  1918 
interest  naturally  centered  upon  the  actual  performance  of 
Negro  soldiers  in  France  and  upon  the  establishment  of  units 


352     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps  in  twenty  leading  edu- 
cational institutions.  When  these  units  were  demobilized  in 
December,  1918,  provision  was  made  in  a  number  of  the 
schools  for  the  formation  of  units  of  the  Reserve  Officers' 
Training  Corps. 

The  remarkable  record  made  by  the  Negro  in  the  previous 
wars  of  the  country  was  fully  equaled  by  that  in  the  Great 
War.  Negro  soldiers  fought  with  special  distinction  in  the 
Argonne  Forest,  at  Chateau-Thierry,  in  Belleau  Wood,  in  the 
St.  Mihiel  district,  in  the  Champagne  sector,  at  Vosges  and 
Metz,  winning  often  very  high  praise  from  their  com- 
manders. Entire  regiments  of  Negro*  troops  were  cited  for 
exceptional  valor  and  decorated  with  the  Croix  de  Guerre — ■ 
the  369th,  the  371st,  and  the  372nd;  while  groups  of  officers 
and  men  of  the  365th,  the  366th,  the  368th,  the  370th,  and  the 
first  battalion  of  the  367th  were  also  decorated.  At  the  close 
of  the  war  the  highest  Negro  officers  in  the  army  were  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Otis  B.  Duncan,  commander  of  the  third  bat- 
talion of  the  370th,  formerly  the  Eighth  Illinois,  and  the 
highest  ranking  Negro  officer  in  the  American  Expeditionary 
Forces;  Colonel  Charles  Young  (retired),  on  special  duty  at 
Camp  Grant,  111. ;  Colonel  Franklin  A.  Dennison,  of  the 
370th  Infantry,  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Benjamin  O.  Davis, 
of  the  Ninth  Cavalry.  The  370th  was  the  first  American 
regiment  stationed  in  the  St.  Mihiel  sector;  it  was  one  of  the 
three  that  occupied  a  sector  at  Verdun  when  a  penetration 
there  would  have  been  disastrous  to  the  Allied  cause;  and  it 
went  direct  from  the  training  camp  to  the  firing-line.  Note- 
worthy also  was  the  record  of  the  369th  infantry,  formerly 
the  Fifteenth  Regiment,  New  York  National  Guard.  This 
organization  was  under  shellfire  for  191  days,  and  it  held 
one  trench  for  91  days  without  relief.  It  was  the  first  unit 
of  Allied  fighters  to  reach  the  Rhine,  going  down 
as  an  advance  guard  of  the  French  army  of  occupation.  A 
prominent  hero  in  this  regiment  was  Sergeant  Henry  John- 
son, who  returned  with  the  Croix  de  Guerre  with  one  star  and 
one  palm.  He  is  credited  with  routing  a  party  of  Germans 
at  Bois-Hanzey  in  the  Argonne  on  May  5,  19 18,  with  singu- 
larly heavy  losses  to  the  enemy.  Many  other  men  acted  with 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  353 

similar  bravery.  Hardly  less  heroic  was  the  service  of 
the  stevedore  regiments,  or  the  thousands  of  men  in  the 
army  who  did  not  go  to  France  but  who  did  their  duty  as 
they  were  commanded  at  home.  General  Vincenden  said  of 
the  men  of  the  370th:  "Fired  by  a  noble  ardor,  they  go  at 
times  even  beyond  the  objectives  given  them  by  the  higher 
command ;  they  have  always  wished  to  be  in  the  front  line" ; 
and  General  Coybet  said  of  the  371st  and  372nd:  "The  most 
powerful  defenses,  the  most  strongly  organized  machine  gun 
nests,  the  heaviest  artillery  barrages — nothing  could  stop  them. 
These  crack  regiments  overcame  every  obstacle  with  a  most 
complete  contempt  for  danger.  .  .  .  They  have  shown  us  the 
way  to  victory." 

In  spite  of  his  noble  record — perhaps  in  some  measure  be- 
cause of  it — and  in  the  face  of  his  loyal  response  to  the  call 
to  duty,  the  Negro  unhappily  became  in  the  course  of  the  war 
the  victim  of  proscription  and  propaganda  probably  without 
parallel  in  the  history  of  the  country.  No  effort  seems  to 
have  been  spared  to  discredit  him  both  as  a  man  and  as  a 
soldier.  In  both  France  and  America  the  apparent  object  of 
the  forces  working  against  him  was  the  intention  to  prevent 
any  feeling  that  the  war  would  make  any  change  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  race  at  home.  In  the  South  Negroes  were  some- 
times forced  into  peonage  and  restrained  in  their  efforts  to 
go  North;  and  generally  they  had  no  representation  on  local 
boards,  the  draft  was  frequently  operated  so  as  to  be  unfair 
to  them,  and  every  man  who  registered  found  special  pro- 
vision for  the  indication  of  his  race  in  the  corner  of  his  card. 
Accordingly  in  many  localities  Negroes  contributed  more  than 
their  quota,  this  being  the  result  of  favoritism  shown  to  white 
draftees.  The  first  report  of  the  Provost-Marshal  General 
showed  that  of  every  100  Negroes  called  36  were  certified 
for  service,  while  of  every  100  white  men  called  only  25  were 
certified.  Of  those  summoned  in  Class  1  Negroes  contributed 
51.65  per  cent  of  their  registrants  as  against  32.53  per  cent 
of  the  white.  In  France  the  work  of  defamation  was  mani- 
fest and  flagrant.  Slanders  about  the  Negro  soldiers  were 
deliberately  circulated  among  the  French  people,  sometimes 
on  very  high  authority,  much  of  this  propaganda  growing  out 


\ 


354     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

of  a  jealous  fear  of  any  acquaintance  whatsoever  of  the  Negro 
men  with  the  French  women.  Especially  insolent  and  some- 
times brutal  were  the  men  of  the  military  police,  who  at  times 
shot  and  killed  on  the  slightest  provocation.  Proprietors  who 
sold  to  Negro  soldiers  were  sometimes  boycotted,  and  of- 
fenses were  magnified  which  in  the  case  of  white  men  never 
saw  publication.  Negro  officers  were  discriminated  against 
in  hotel  and  traveling  accommodations,  while  upon  the  ordi- 
nary men  in  the  service  fell  unduly  any  specially  unpleasant 
duty  such  as  that  of  re-burying  the  dead.  White  women  en- 
gaged in  "Y"  work,  especially  Southern  women,  showed  a 
disposition  not  to  serve  Negroes,  though  the  Red  Cross  and 
Salvation  Army  organizations  were  much  better  in  this  re- 
spect; and  finally  the  Negro  soldier  was  not  given  any  place 
in  the  great  victory  parade  in  Paris.  About  the  close  of  the 
war  moreover  a  great  picture,  or  series  of  pictures,  the  "Pan- 
theon de  la  Guerre,"  that  was  on  a  mammoth  scale  and  that 
attracted  extraordinary  attention,  was  noteworthy  as  giving 
representation  to  all  of  the  forces  and  divisions  of  the  Allied 
armies  except  the  Negroes  in  the  forces  from  the  United 
States.*  Not  unnaturally  the  Germans  endeavored — though 
without  success — to  capitalize  the  situation  by  circulating 
among  the  Negroes  insidious  literature  that  sometimes  made 
very  strong  points.  All  of  these  things  are  to  be  considered 
by  those  people  in  the  United  States  who  think  that  the  Negro 
suffers  unduly  from  a  grievance. 

While  the  Negro  soldier  abroad  was  thus  facing  unusual 
pressure  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  hardships  of  war,  at  home 
occurred  an  incident  that  was  doubly  depressing  coming  as 
it  did  just  a  few  weeks  after  the  massacre  at  East  St.  Louis. 
In  August,  191 7,  a  battalion  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Infantry, 
stationed  at  Houston,  Texas,  to  assist  in  the  work  of  concen- 
trating soldiers  for  the  war  in  Europe,  encountered  the  ill- 
will  of  the  town,  and  between  the  city  police  and  the  Negro 

*  On  the  whole  subject  of  the  actual  life  of  the  Negro  soldier  unusual 
interest  attaches  to  the  forthcoming  and  authoritative  "Sidelights  on  Negro 
Soldiers,"  by  Charles  H.  Williams,  who  as  a  special  and  official  investigator 
had  unequaled  opportunity  to  study  the  Negro  in  camp  and  on  the  battle- 
line  both  in  the  United  States  and  in  France. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  355 

military  police  there  was  constant  friction.  At  last  when  one 
of  the  Negroes  had  been  beaten,  word  was  circulated  among 
his  comrades  that  he  had  been  shot,  and  a  number  of  them 
set  out  for  revenge.  In  the  riot  that  followed  (August  23) 
two  of  the  Negroes  and  seventeen  white  people  of  the  town 
were  killed,  the  latter  number  including  five  policemen.  As 
a  result  of  this  encounter  sixty-three  members  of  the  bat- 
talion were  court-martialed  at  Fort  Sam  Houston.  Thirteen 
were  hanged  on  December  II,  191 7,  five  more  were  executed 
on  September  13,  19 18,  fifty-one  were  sentenced  to  life  im- 
prisonment and  five  to  briefer  terms;  and  the  Negro  people 
of  the  country  felt  very  keenly  the  fact  that  the  condemned 
men  were  hanged  like  common  criminals  rather  than  given 
the  death  of  soldiers.  Thus  for  one  reason  or  another  the 
whole  matter  of  the  war  and  the  incidents  connected  there- 
with simply  made  the  Negro  question  more  bitterly  than  ever 
the  real  disposition  toward  him  of  the  government  under 
which  he  lived  and  which  he  had  striven  so  long  to  serve. 


4.     High  Tension:  Washington,  Chicago,  Elaine 

Such  incidents  abroad  and  such  feeling  at  home  as  we  have 
recorded  not  only  agitated  the  Negro  people,  but  gave  thou- 
sands of  other  citizens  concern,  and  when  the  armistice  sud- 
denly came  on  November  11,  19 18,  not  only  in  the  South  but 
in  localities  elsewhere  in  the  country  racial  feeling  had  been 
raised  to  the  highest  point.  About  the  same  time  there  began 
to  be  spread  abroad  sinister  rumors  that  the  old  KuKlux 
were  riding  again;  and  within  a  few  months  parades  at  night 
in  representative  cities  in  Alabama  and  Georgia  left  no  doubt 
that  the  rumors  were  well  founded.  The  Negro  people  fully 
realized  the  significance  of  the  new  movement,  and  they  felt 
full  well  the  pressure  being  brought  to  bear  upon  them  in 
view  of  the  shortage  of  domestic  servants  in  the  South.  Still 
more  did  they  sense  the  situation  that  would  face  their  sons 
and  brothers  when  they  returned  from  France.  But  they 
were  not  afraid;  and  in  all  of  the  riots  of  the  period  the  note- 
worthy fact  stands  out  that  in  some  of  the  cities  in  which  the 


356    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRC 

situation  was  most  tense — notably  Atlanta  and  Birmingham — 
no  great  race  trouble  was  permitted  to  start. 

In  general,  however,  the  violence  that  had  characterized  the 
year  191 7  continued  through  19 18  and  19 19.  In  the  one 
state  of  Tennessee,  within  less  than  a  year  and  on  separate 
occasions,  three  Negroes  were  burned  at  the  stake.  On  May 
22,  191 7,  near  Memphis,  Ell  T.  Person,  nearly  fifty  years  of 
age,  was  burned  for  the  alleged  assault  and  murder  of  a  young 
woman;  and  in  this  case  the  word  "alleged"  is  used  advisedly, 
for  the  whole  matter  of  the  fixing  of  the  blame  for  the  crime 
and  the  fact  that  the  man  was  denied  a  legal  trial  left  grave 
doubt  as  to  the  extent  of  his  guilt.  On  Sunday,  December  2, 
1917,  at  Dyersburg,  immediately  after  the  adjournment  of 
services  in  the  churches  of  the  town,  Lation  Scott,  guilty  of 
criminal  assault,  was  burned;  his  eyes  were  put  out  with  red- 
hot  irons,  a  hot  poker  was  rammed  down  his  throat,  and  he 
was  mutilated  in  unmentionable  ways.  Two  months  later,  on 
February  12,  191 8,  at  Estill  Springs,  Jim  Mcllheron,  who  had 
shot  and  killed  two  young  white  men,  was  also  burned  at  the 
stake.  In  Estill  Springs  it  had  for  some  time  been  the  sport 
of  young  white  men  in  the  community  to  throw  rocks  at  single 
Negroes  and  make  them  run.  Late  one  afternoon  Mcllheron 
went  into  a  store  to  buy  some  candy.  As  he  passed  out,  a 
remark  was  made  by  one  of  three  young  men  about  his  eating 
his  candy.    The  rest  of  the  story  is  obvious. 

As  horrible  as  these  burnings  were,  it  is  certain  that  they 
did  not  grind  the  iron  into  the  Negro's  soul  any  more  surely 
than  the  three  stories  that  follow.  Hampton  Smith  was  known 
as  one  of  the  harshest  employers  of  Negro  labor  in  Brooks 
County,  Ga.  As  it  was  difficult  for  him  to  get  help  otherwise, 
he  would  go  into  the  courts  and  whenever  a  Negro  was  con- 
victed and  was  unable  to  pay  his  fine  or  was  sentenced  to  a 
term  on  the  chain-gang,  he  would  pay  the  fine  and  secure  the 
man  for  work  on  his  plantation.  He  thus  secured  the  services 
of  Sidney  Johnson,  fined  thirty  dollars  for  gambling.  After 
Johnson  had  more  than  worked  out  the  thirty  dollars  he  asked 
pay  for  the  additional  time  he  served.  Smith  refused  to  give 
this  and  a  quarrel  resulted.  A  few  mornings  later,  when 
Johnson,  sick,  did  not  come  to  work,  Smith  found  him  in  his 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  357 

cabin  and  beat  him.  A  few  evenings  later,  while  Smith  was 
sitting  in  his  home,  he  was  shot  through  a  window  and  killed 
instantly,  and  his  wife  was  wounded.  As  a  result  of  this  occur- 
rence the  Negroes  of  both  Brooks  and  Lowndes  counties  were 
terrorized  for  the  week  May  17-24,  191 8,  and  not  less  than 
eleven  of  them  lynched.  Into  the  bodies  of  two  men  lynched 
together  not  less  than  seven  hundred  bullets  are  said  to  have 
been  fired.  Johnson  himself  had  been  shot  dead  when  he  was 
found ;  but  his  body  was  mutilated,  dragged  through  the  streets 
of  Valdosta,  and  burned.  Mary  Turner,  the  wife  of  one  of 
the  victims,  said  that  her  husband  had  been  unjustly  treated 
and  that  if  she  knew  who  had  killed  him  she  would  have  war- 
rants sworn  out  against  them.  For  saying  this  she  too  was 
lynched,  although  she  was  in  an  advanced  state  of  pregnancy. 
Her  ankles  were  tied  together  and  she  was  hung  to  a  tree,  head 
downward.  Gasoline  and  oil  from  the  automobiles  near  were 
thrown  on  her  clothing  and  a  match  applied.  While  she  was 
yet  alive  her  abdomen  was  cut  open  with  a  large  knife  and 
her  unborn  babe  fell  to  the  ground.  It  gave  two  feeble  cries 
and  then  its  head  was  crushed  by  a  member  of  the  mob  with 
his  heel.  Hundreds  of  bullets  were  then  fired  into  the  woman's 
body.  As  a  result  of  these  events  not  less  than  five  hundred 
Negroes  left  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Valdosta  immediately, 
and  hundreds  of  others  prepared  to  leave  as  soon  as  they  could 
dispose  of  their  land,  and  this  they  proceeded  to  do  in  the 
face  of  the  threat  that  any  Negro  who  attempted  to  leave 
would  be  regarded  as  implicated  in  the  murder  of  Smith  and 
dealt  with  accordingly.  At  the  end  of  this  same  year — on 
December  20,  191 8 — four  young  Negroes — Major  Clark,  aged 
twenty;  Andrew  Clark,  aged  fifteen;  Maggie  Howze,  aged 
twenty,  and  Alma  Howze,  aged  sixteen — were  taken  from  the 
little  jail  at  Shubuta,  Mississippi,  and  lynched  on  a  bridge  near 
the  town.  They  were  accused  of  the  murder  of  E.  L.  Johnston, 
a  white  dentist,  though  all  protested  their  innocence.  The  situ- 
ation that  preceded  the  lynching  was  significant.  Major  Clark 
was  in  love  with  Maggie  Howze  and  planned  to  marry  her. 
This  thought  enraged  Johnston,  who  was  soon  to  become  the 
father  of  a  child  by  the  young  woman,  and  who  told  Clark 
to  leave  her  alone.   As  the  two  sisters  were  about  to  be  killed, 


358     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Maggie  screamed  and  fought,  crying,  "I  ain't  guilty  of  killing 
the  doctor  and  you  oughtn't  to  kill  me" ;  and  to  silence  her 
cries  one  member  of  the  mob  struck  her  in  the  mouth  with  a 
monkey  wrench,  knocking  her  teeth  out.  On  May  24,  191 9, 
at  Milan,  Telfair  County,  Georgia,  two  young  white  men, 
Jim  Dowdy  and  Lewis  Evans,  went  drunk  late  at  night  to 
the  Negro  section  of  the  town  and  to  the  home  of  a  widow 
who  had  two  daughters.  They  were  refused  admittance  and 
then  fired  into  the  house.  The  girls,  frightened,  ran  to  an- 
other home.  They  were  pursued,  and  Berry  Washington,  a 
respectable  Negro  seventy-two  years  of  age,  seized  a  shotgun, 
intending  to  give  them  protection;  and  in  the  course  of  the 
shooting  that  followed  Dowdy  was  killed.  The  next  night, 
Saturday  the  25th,  Washington  was  taken  to  the  place  where 
Dowdy  was  killed  and  his  body  shot  to  pieces. 

It  remained  for  the  capital  of  the  nation,  however,  largely 
to  show  the  real  situation  of  the  race  in  the  aftermath  of  a 
great  war  conducted  by  a  Democratic  administration.  Hereto- 
fore the  Federal  Government  had  declared  itself  powerless  to 
act  in  the  case  of  lawlessness  in  an  individual  state;  but  it 
was  now  to  have  an  opportunity  to  deal  with  violence  in  Wash- 
ington itself.  On  July  19,  1919,  a  series  of  lurid  and  exag- 
gerated stories  in  the  daily  papers  of  attempted  assaults  of 
Negroes  on  white  women  resulted  in  an  outbreak,  that  was 
intended  to  terrorize  the  popular  Northwest  section,  in  which 
lived  a  large  proportion  of  the  Negroes  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  For  three  days  the  violence  continued  intermit- 
tently, and  as  the  constituted  police  authority  did  practically 
nothing  for  the  defense  of  the  Negro  citizens,  the  loss  of 
life  might  have  been  infinitely  greater  than  it  was  if  the  col- 
ored men  of  the  city  had  not  assumed  their  own  defense.  As 
it  was  they  saved  the  capital  and  earned  the  gratitude  of  the 
race  and  the  nation.  It  appeared  that  Negroes — educated,  law- 
abiding  Negroes — would  not  now  run  when  their  lives  and 
their  homes  were  at  stake,  and  before  such  determination  the 
mob  retreated  ingloriously. 

Just  a  week  afterwards — before  the  country  had  really 
caught  its  breath  after  the  events  in  Washington — there  burst 
into  flame  in  Chicago  a  race  war  of  the  greatest  bitterness  and 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  359 

fierceness.  For  a  number  of  years  the  Western  metropolis  had 
been  known  as  that  city  offering  to  the  Negro  the  best  indus- 
trial and  political  opportunity  in  the  country.  When  the  migra- 
tion caused  by  the  war  was  at  its  height,  tens  of  thousands 
of  Negroes  from  the  South  passed  through  the  city  going 
elsewhere,  but  thousands  also  remained  to  work  in  the  stock- 
yards or  other  places.  With  all  of  the  coming  and  going,  the 
Negroes  in  the  city  must  at  any  time  in  1918  or  1919  have 
numbered  not  less  than  150,000;  and  banks,  cooperative  so- 
cieties, and  race  newspapers  flourished.  There  were  also  abun- 
dant social  problems  awakened  by  the  saloons  and  gambling 
dens,  and  by  the  seamy  side  of  politics.  Those  who  had  been 
longest  in  the  city,  however,  rallied  to  the  needs  of  the  new- 
comers, and  in  their  homes,  their  churches,  and  their  places 
of  work  endeavored  to  get  them  adjusted  in  their  environ- 
ment. The  housing  situation,  in  spite  of  all  such  effort,  be- 
came more  and  more  acute,  and  when  some  Negroes  were 
forced  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  old  "black  belt"  there  were 
attempts  to  dynamite  their  new  residences.  Meanwhile  hun- 
dreds of  young  men  who  had  gone  to  France  or  to  canton- 
ments— 1850  from  the  district  of  one  draft  board  at  State 
and  35th  Streets — returned  to  find  again  a  place  in  the  life 
of  Chicago;  and  daily  from  Washington  or  from  the  South 
came  the  great  waves  of  social  unrest.  Said  Arnold  Hill,  secre- 
tary of  the  Chicago  branch  of  the  National  Urban  League : 
"Every  time  a  lynching  takes  place  in  a  community  down  South 
you  can  depend  on  it  that  colored  people  from  that  community 
will  arrive  in  Chicago  inside  of  two  weeks;  we  have  seen  it 
happen  so  often  that  whenever  we  read  newspaper  dispatches 
of  a  public  hanging  or  burning  in  a  Texas  or  a  Mississippi 
town,  we  get  ready  to  extend  greetings  to  the  people  from  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  lynching."  Before  the  armistice  was 
signed  the  League  was  each  month  finding  work  for  1700  or 
1800  men  and  women;  in  the  following  April  the  number  fell 
to  500,  but  with  the  coming  of  summer  it  rapidly  rose  again. 
Unskilled  work  was  plentiful,  and  jobs  in  foundries  and  steel 
mills,  in  building  and  construction  work,  and  in  light  factories 
and  packing-houses   kept  up  a   steady  demand   for  laborers. 


36o    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Meanwhile  trouble  was  brewing,  and  on  the  streets  there  were 
occasional  encounters. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  on  a  Sunday  at  the  end  of 
July  a  Negro  boy  at  a  bathing  beach  near  Twenty-sixth  Street 
swam  across  an  imaginary  segregation  line.  White  boys  threw 
rocks  at  him,  knocked  him  off  a  raft,  and  he  was  drowned. 
Colored  people  rushed  to  a  policeman  and  asked  him  to  arrest 
the  boys  who  threw  the  stones.  He  refused  to  do  so,  and  as 
the  dead  body  of  the  Negro  boy  was  being  handled,  more 
rocks  were  thrown  on  both  sides.  The  trouble  thus  engendered 
spread  through  the  Negro  district  on  the  South  Side,  and  for 
a  week  it  was  impossible  or  dangerous  for  people  to  go  to 
work.  Some  employed  at  the  stockyards  could  not  get  to 
their  work  for  some  days  further.  At  the  end  of  three  days 
twenty  Negroes  were  reported  as  dead,  fourteen  white  men 
were  dead,  scores  of  people  were  injured,  and  a  number  of 
houses  of  Negroes  burned. 

In  the  face  of  this  disaster  the  great  soul  of  Chicago  rose 
above  its  materialism.  There  were  many  conferences  between 
representative  people;  out  of  all  the  effort  grew  the  deter- 
mination to  work  for  a  nobler  city;  and  the  sincerity  was 
such  as  to  give  one  hope  not  only  for  Chicago  but  also  for 
a  new  and  better  America. 

The  riots  in  Washington  and  Chicago  were  followed  with- 
in a  few  weeks  by  outbreaks  in  Knoxville  and  Omaha.  In  the 
latter  place  the  fundamental  cause  of  the  trouble  was  social 
and  political  corruption,  and  because  he  strongly  opposed  the 
lynching  of  William  Brown,  the  Negro,  the  mayor  of  the 
city,  Edward  P.  Smith,  very  nearly  lost  his  life.  As  it  was, 
the  county  court  house  was  burned,  one  man  more  was  killed, 
and  perhaps  as  many  as  forty  injured.  More  important  even 
than  this,  however — and  indeed  one  of  the  two  or  three  most 
far-reaching  instances  of  racial  trouble  in  the  history  of  the 
Negro  in  America — was  the  reign  of  terror  in  and  near  Elaine, 
Phillips  County,  Arkansas,  in  the  first  week  of  October,  19 19. 
The  causes  of  this  were  fundamental  and  reached  the  very 
heart  of  the  race  problem  and  of  the  daily  life  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  Negroes. 

Many  Negro  tenants  in  eastern  Arkansas,  as  in  other  states, 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  361 

were  still  living  under  a  share  system  by  which  the  owner 
furnished  the  land  and  the  Negro  the  labor,  and  by  which  at 
the  end  of  the  year  the  two  supposedly  got  equal  parts  of 
the  crop.  Meanwhile  throughout  the  year  the  tenant  would 
get  his  food,  clothing,  and  other  supplies  at  exorbitant  prices 
from  a  "commissary"  operated  by  the  planter  or  his  agent; 
and  in  actual  practice  the  landowner  and  the  tenant  did  not 
go  together  to  a  city  to  dispose  of  the  crop  when  it  was  gath- 
ered, as  was  sometimes  done  elsewhere,  but  the  landowner 
alone  sold  the  crop  and  settled  with  the  tenant  whenever  and 
however  he  pleased;  nor  at  the  time  of  settlement  was  any 
itemized  statement  of  supplies  given,  only  the  total  amount 
owed  being  stated.  Obviously  the  planter  could  regularly  pad 
his  accounts,  keep  the  Negro  in  debt,  and  be  assured  of  his 
labor  supply  from  year  to  year. 

In  191 8  the  price  of  cotton  was  constantly  rising  and  at 
length  reached  forty  cents  a  pound.  Even  with  the  cheating 
to  which  the  Negroes  were  subjected,  it  became  difficult  to 
keep  them  in  debt,  and  they  became  more  and  more  insistent 
in  their  demands  for  itemized  statements.  Nevertheless  some 
of  those  whose  cotton  was  sold  in  October,  19 18,  did  not  get 
any  statement  of  any  sort  before  July  of  the  next  year. 

Seeing  no  other  way  out  of  their  difficulty,  sixty-eight  of 
the  Negroes  got  together  and  decided  to  hire  a  lawyer  who 
would  help  them  to  get  statements  of  their  accounts  and  settle- 
ment at  the  right  figures.  Feeling  that  the  life  of  any  Negro 
lawyer  who  took  such  a  case  would  be  endangered,  they  em- 
ployed the  firm  of  Bratton  and  Bratton,  of  Little  Rock.  They 
made  contracts  with  this  firm  to  handle  the  sixty-eight  cases 
at  fifty  dollars  each  in  cash  and  a  percentage  of  the  moneys 
collected  from  the  white  planters.  Some  of  the  Negroes  also 
planned  to  go  before  the  Federal  Grand  Jury  and  charge  cer- 
tain planters  with  peonage.  They  had  secret  meetings  from 
time  to  time  in  order  to  collect  the  money  to  be  paid  in  advance 
and  to  collect  the  evidence  which  would  enable  them  success- 
fully to  prosecute  their  cases.  Some  Negro  cotton-pickers 
about  the  same  time  organized  a  union ;  and  at  Elaine  many 
Negroes  who  worked  in  the  sawmills  and  who  desired  to  pro- 


362    >SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

tect  their  wives  and  daughters  from  insult,  refused  to  allow 
them  to  pick  cotton  or  to  work  for  a  white  man  at  any  price. 

Such  was  the  sentiment  out  of  which  developed  the  Pro- 
gressive Farmers  and  Household  Union  of  America,  which 
was  an  effort  by  legal  means  to  secure  protection  from  un- 
scrupulous landlords,  but  which  did  use  the  form  of  a  fra- 
ternal order  with  passwords  and  grips  and  insignia  so  as  the 
more  forcefully  to  appeal  to  some  of  its  members.  About  the 
first  of  October  the  report  was  spread  abroad  in  Phillips 
County  that  the  Negroes  were  plotting  an  insurrection  and 
that  they  were  rapidly  preparing  to  massacre  the  white  people 
on  a  great  scale.  When  the  situation  had  become  tense,  one 
Sunday  John  Clem,  a  white  man  from  Helena,  drunk,  came 
to  Elaine  and  proceeded  to  terrorize  the  Negro  population  by 
gun  play.  The  colored  people  kept  off  the  streets  in  order  to 
avoid  trouble  and  telephoned  the  sheriff  at  Helena.  This  man 
failed  to  act.  The  next  day  Clem  was  abroad  again,  but  the 
Negroes  still  avoided  trouble,  thinking  that  his  acts  were  sim- 
ply designed  to  start  a  race  riot.  On  Tuesday  evening,  Octo- 
ber i,  however,  W.  D.  Adkins,  a  special  agent  of  the  Missouri 
Pacific  Railroad,  in  company  with  Charles  Pratt,  a  deputy 
sheriff,  was  riding  past  a  Negro  church  near  Hoop  Spur,  a 
small  community  just  a  few  miles  from  Elaine.  According 
to  Pratt,  persons  in  the  church  fired  without  cause  on  the 
party,  killing  Adkins  and  wounding  himself.  According  to 
the  Negroes,  Adkins  and  Pratt  fired  into  the  church,  evidently 
to  frighten  the  people  there  assembled.  At  any  rate  word 
spread  through  the  county  that  the  massacre  had  started,  and 
for  days  there  was  murder  and  rioting,  in  the  course  of  which 
not  less  than  five  white  men  and  twenty-five  Negroes  were 
killed,  though  some  estimates  placed  the  number  of  fatalities 
a  great  deal  higher.  Negroes  were  arrested  and  disarmed; 
some  were  shot  on  the  highways;  homes  were  fired  into;  and 
at  one  time  hundreds  of  men  and  women  were  in  a  stockade 
under  heavy  guard  and  under  the  most  unwholesome  condi- 
tions, while  hundreds  of  white  men,  armed  to  the  teeth,  rushed 
to  the  vicinity  from  neighboring  cities  and  towns.  Governor 
Charles  H.  Brough  telegraphed  to  Camp  Pike  for  Federal 
troops,  and  five  hundred  were  mobilized  at  once  "to  repel  the 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  363 

attack  of  the  black  army."  Worse  than  any  other  feature  was 
the  wanton  slaying  of  the  four  Johnston  brothers,  whose  father 
had  been  a  prominent  Presbyterian  minister  and  whose  mother 
was  formerly  a  school-teacher.  Dr.  D.  A.  E.  Johnston  was  a 
successful  dentist  and  owned  a  three-story  building  in  Helena. 
Dr.  Louis  Johnston  was  a  physician  who  lived  in  Oklahoma 
and  who  had  come  home  on  a  visit.  A  third  brother  had  served 
in  France  and  been  wounded  and  gassed  at  Chateau-Thierry. 

Altogether  one  thousand  Negroes  were  arrested  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty-two  indicted.  A  special  committee  of 
seven  gathered  evidence  and  is  charged  with  having  used  elec- 
tric connections  on  the  witness  chair  in  order  to  frighten  the 
Negroes.  Twelve  men  were  sentenced  to  death  (though  up 
to  the  end  of  1920  execution  had  been  stayed),  and  fifty-four 
to  penitentiary  terms.  The  trials  lasted  from  five  to  ten  min- 
utes each.  No  witnesses  for  the  defense  were  called;  no 
Negroes  were  on  the  juries;  no  change  of  venue  was  given. 
Meanwhile  lawyers  at  Helena  were  preparing  to  reap  further 
harvest  from  Negroes  who  would  be  indicted  and  against 
whom  there  was  no  evidence,  but  who  had  saved  money  and 
Liberty  Bonds. 

Governor  Brough  in  a  statement  to  the  press  blamed  the 
Crisis  and  the  Chicago  Defender  for  the  trouble.  He  had 
served  for  a  number  of  years  as  a  professor  of  economics 
before  becoming  governor  and  had  even  identified  himself  with 
the  forward-looking  University  Commission  on  Southern  Race 
Questions;  and  it  is  true  that  he  postponed  the  executions  in 
order  to  allow  appeals  to  be  filed  in  behalf  of  the  condemned 
men.  That  he  should  thus  attempt  to  shift  the  burden  of 
blame  and  overlook  the  facts  when  in  a  position  of  grave 
responsibility  was  a  keen  disappointment  to  the  lovers  of 
progress. 

Reference  to  the  monthly  periodical  and  the  weekly  paper 
just  mentioned,  however,  brings  us  to  still  another  matter — 
the  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  Negro  that,  in  addition  to  the  out- 
rages visited  on  the  race,  the  Government  was  now,  under  the 
cloak  of  wartime  legislation,  formally  to  attempt  to  curtail 
its  freedom  of  speech.  For  some  days  the  issue  of  the  Crisis 
for  May,  19 19,  was  held  up  in  the  mail;  a  South  Carolina 


364    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

representative  in  Congress  quoted  by  way  of  denunciation 
from  the  editorial  "Returning  Soldiers"  in  the  same  number 
of  the  periodical;  and  a  little  later  in  the  year  the  Department 
of  Justice  devoted  twenty-seven  pages  of  the  report  of  the 
investigation  against  "Persons  Advising  Anarchy,  Sedition, 
and  the  Forcible  Overthrow  of  the  Government"  to  a  report 
on  "Radicalism  and  Sedition  among  the  Negroes  as  Reflected 
in  Their  Publications."  Among  other  periodicals  and  papers 
mentioned  were  the  Messenger  and  the  Negro  World  of  New 
York;  and  by  the  Messenger  indeed,  frankly  radical  in  its 
attitude  not  only  on  the  race  question  but  also  on  fundamental 
economic  principles,  even  the  Crisis  was  regarded  as  conserva- 
tive in  tone.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  a  great  spiritual 
change  had  come  over  the  Negro  people  of  the  United  States. 
At  the  very  time  that  their  sons  and  brothers  were  making  the 
supreme  sacrifice  in  France  they  were  witnessing  such  events 
as  those  at  East  St.  Louis  or  Houston,  or  reading  of  three 
burnings  within  a  year  in  Tennessee.  A  new  determination 
closely  akin  to  consecration  possessed  them.  Fully  to  under- 
stand the  new  spirit  one  would  read  not  only  such  publica- 
tions as  those  that  have  been  mentioned,  but  also  those  issued 
in  the  heart  of  the  South.  "Good-by,  Black  Mammy,"  said 
the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate,  taking  as  its  theme  the 
story  of  four  Southern  white  men  who  acted  as  honorary  pall- 
bearers at  an  old  Negro  woman's  funeral,  but  who  under  no 
circumstances  would  thus  have  served  for  a  thrifty,  intelligent, 
well-educated  man  of  the  race.  Said  the  Houston  Informer, 
voicing  the  feeling  of  thousands,  "The  black  man  fought  to 
make  the  world  safe  for  democracy;  he  now  demands  that 
America  be  made  and  maintained  safe  for  black  Americans." 
With  hypocrisy  in  the  practice  of  the  Christian  religion  there 
ceased  to  be  any  patience  whatsoever,  as  was  shown  by  the 
treatment  accorded  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  "Call  on  behalf  of  the  young 
men  and  boys  of  the  two  great  sister  Anglo-Saxon  nations." 
"Read!  Read!  Read!"  said  the  Challenge  Magazine,  "then 
when  the  mob  comes,  whether  with  torch  or  with  gun,  let  us 
stand  at  Armageddon  and  battle  for  the  Lord."  "Protect  your 
home,"  said  the  gentle  Christian  Recorder,  "protect  your  wife 
and  children,  with  your  life  if  necessary.    If  a  man  crosses 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  365 

your  threshold  after  you  and  your  family,  the  law  allows  you 
to  protect  your  home  even  if  you  have  to  kill  the  intruder.' ' 
Perhaps  nothing,  however,  better  summed  up  the  new  spirit 
than  the  following  sonnet  by  Claude  McKay: 

If  we  must  die,  let  it  not  be  like  hogs 

Hunted  and  penned  in  an  inglorious  spot, 
While  round  us  bark  the  mad  and  hungry  dogs, 

Making  their  mock  at  our  accursed  lot. 
If  we  must  die,  let  it  not  be  like  hogs 

So  that  our  precious  blood  may  not  be  shed 
In  vain;  then  even  the  monsters  we  defy 

Shall  be  constrained  to  honor  us,  though  dead! 
Oh,  kinsman!    We  must  meet  the  common  foe; 

Though  far  outnumbered,  let  us  still  be  brave, 
And  for  their  thousand  blows  deal  one  deathblow! 

What  though  before  us  lies  the  open  grave? 
Like  men  we'll  face  the  murderous,  cowardly  pack 

Pressed  to  the  wall,  dying,  but — fighting  back! 


5.     The  Widening  Problem 

In  view  of  the  world  war  and  the  important  part  taken  in 
it  by  French  colonial  troops,  especially  those  from  Senegal,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  heart  of  the  Negro  people  in  the 
United  States  broadened  in  a  new  sympathy  with  the  prob- 
lems of  their  brothers  the  world  over.  Even  early  in  the  decade 
that  we  are  now  considering,  however,  there  was  some  indi- 
cation of  this  tendency,  and  the  First  Universal  Races  Con- 
gress in  London  in  191 1  attracted  wide  attention.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1919,  largely  through  the  personal  effort  of  Dr.  DuBois, 
a  Pan-African  Congress  was  held  in  Paris,  the  chief  aims  of 
which  were  the  hearing  of  statements  on  the  condition  of 
Negroes  throughout  the  world,  the  obtaining  of  authoritative 
statements  of  policy  toward  the  Negro  race  from  the  Great 
Powers,  the  making  of  strong  representations  to  the  Peace 
Conference  then  sitting  in  Paris  in  behalf  of  the  Negroes 
throughout  the  world,  and  the  laying  down  of  principles  on 
which  the  future  development  of  the  race  must  take  place. 
Meanwhile  the  cession  of  the  Virgin  Islands  had  fixed  atten- 


366    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

tion  upon  an  interesting  colored  population  at  the  very  door 
of  the  United  States;  and  the  American  occupation  of  Hayti 
culminating  in  the  killing  of  many  of  the  people  in  the  course 
of  President  Wilson's  second  administration  gave  a  new  feel- 
ing of  kinship  for  the  land  of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture.  Among 
other  things  the  evidence  showed  that  on  June  12,  19 18,  under 
military  pressure  a  new  constitution  was  forced  on  the  Hay- 
tian  people,  one  favoring  the  white  man  and  the  foreigner; 
that  by  force  and  brutality  innocent  men  and  women,  includ- 
ing native  preachers  and  members  of  their  churches,  had  been 
taken,  roped  together,  and  marched  as  slave-gangs  to  prison; 
and  that  in  large  numbers  Haytians  had  been  taken  from  their 
homes  and  farms  and  made  to  work  on  new  roads  for  twenty 
cents  a  week,  without  being  properly  furnished  with  food — all 
of  this  being  done  under  the  pretense  of  improving  the  social 
and  political  condition  of  the  country.  The  whole  world  now 
realized  that  the  Negro  problem  was  no  longer  local  in  the 
United  States  or  South  Africa,  or  the  West  Indies,  but  inter- 
national in  its  scope  and  possibilities. 

Very  early  in  the  course  of  the  conflict  in  Europe  it  was 
pointed  out  that  Africa  was  the  real  prize  of  the  war,  and  it 
is  now  simply  a  commonplace  to  say  that  the  bases  of  the 
struggle  were  economic.  Nothing  did  Germany  regret  more 
than  the  forcible  seizure  of  her  African  possessions.  One  can 
not  fail  to  observe,  moreover,  a  tendency  of  discussion  of  prob- 
lems resultant  from  the  war  to  shift  the  consideration  from 
that  of  pure  politics  to  that  of  racial  relations,  and  early  in 
the  conflict  students  of  society  the  world  over  realized  that  it 
was  nothing  less  than  suicide  on  the  part  of  the  white  race. 
After  the  close  of  the  war  many  books  dealing  with  the  issues 
at  stake  were  written,  and  in  the  year  1920  alone  several  of 
these  appeared  in  the  United  States.  Of  all  of  these  publica- 
tions, because  of  their  different  points  of  view,  four  might 
call  for  special  consideration — The  Republic  of  Liberia,  by 
R.  C.  F.  Maugham;  The  Rising  Tide  of  Color,  by  Lothrop 
Stoddard;  Darkwater,  by  W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  and 
Empire  and  Commerce  in  Africa:  A  Study  in  Economic  Im- 
perialism, by  Leonard  Woolf.  The  position  of  each  of  these 
books  is  clear  and  all  bear  directly  upon  the  central  theme. 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  367 

The  Republic  of  Liberia  was  written  by  one  who  some 
years  ago  was  the  English  consul  at  Monrovia  and  who  after- 
wards was  appointed  to  Dakar.  The  supplementary  preface 
also  gives  the  information  that  the  book  was  really  written 
two  years  before  it  appeared,  publication  being  delayed  on 
account  of  the  difficulties  of  printing  at  the  time.  Even  up 
to  19 1 8,  however,  the  account  is  incomplete,  and  the  failure 
to  touch  upon  recent  developments  becomes  serious;  but  it  is 
of  course  impossible  to  record  the  history  of  Liberia  from 
1847  to  tne  present  and  reflect  credit  upon  England.  There 
are  some  pages  of  value  in  the  book,  especially  those  in  which 
the  author  speaks  of  the  labor  situation  in  the  little  African 
republic;  but  these  are  obviously  intended  primarily  for  con- 
sumption by  business  men  in  London.  "Liberians,"  we  are 
informed,  "tell  you  that,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  con- 
trary, the  republic's  most  uncomfortable  neighbor  has  always 
been  France."  This  is  hardly  true.  France  has  indeed  on  more 
than  one  occasion  tried  to  equal  her  great  rival  in  aggrandize- 
ment, but  she  has  never  quite  succeeded  in  so  doing.  As  we 
have  already  shown  in  connection  with  Liberia  in  the  present 
work,  from  the  very  first  the  shadow  of  Great  Britain  fell 
across  the  country.  In  more  recent  years,  by  loans  that  were 
no  more  than  clever  plans  for  thievery,  by  the  forceful  occu- 
pation of  large  tracts  of  land,  and  by  interference  in  the  inter- 
nal affairs  of  the  country,  England  has  again  and  again  proved 
herself  the  arch-enemy  of  the  republic.  The  book  so  recently 
written  in  the  last  analysis  appears  to  be  little  more  than  the 
basis  of  effort  toward  still  further  exploitation. 

The  very  merit  of  The  Rising  Tide  of  Color  depends  on 
its  bias,  and  it  is  significant  that  the  book  closes  with  a  quo- 
tation from  Kipling's  "The  Heritage."  To  Dr.  Stoddard  the 
most  disquieting  feature  of  the  recent  situation  was  not  the 
war  but  the  peace.  Says  he,  "The  white  world's  inability  to 
frame  a  constructive  settlement,  the  perpetuation  of  intestine 
hatreds  and  the  menace  of  fresh  civil  wars  complicated  by  the 
specter  of  social  revolution,  evoke  the  dread  thought  that  the 
late  war  may  be  merely  the  first  stage  in  a  cycle  of  ruin." 
As  for  the  war  itself,  "As  colored  men  realized  the  significance 
of  it  all,  they  looked  into  each  other's  eyes  and  there  saw  the 


368    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

light  of  undreamed-of  hopes.  The  white  world  was  tearing 
itself  to  pieces.  White  solidarity  was  riven  and  shattered. 
And — fear  of  white  power  and  respect  for  white  civilization 
together  dropped  away  like  garments  outworn.  Through  the 
bazaars  of  Asia  ran  the  sibilant  whisper :  The  East  will  see 
the  West  to  bed.' "  At  last  comes  the  inevitable  con- 
clusion pleading  for  a  better  understanding  between  England 
and  Germany  and  for  everything  else  that  would  make  for 
racial  solidarity.  The  pitiful  thing  about  this  book  is  that  it 
is  so  thoroughly  representative  of  the  thing  for  which  it  pleads. 
It  is  the  very  essence  of  jingoism;  civilization  does  not  exist 
in  and  of  itself,  it  is  "white" ;  and  the  conclusions  are  directly 
at  variance  with  the  ideals  that  have  been  supposed  to  guide 
England  and  America.  Incidentally  the  work  speaks  of  the 
Negro  and  negroid  population  of  Africa  as  "estimated  at  about 
120,000,000."  This  low  estimate  has  proved  a  common  pitfall 
for  writers.  If  we  remember  that  Africa  is  three  and  a  half 
times  as  large  as  the  United  States,  and  that  while  there  are 
no  cities  as  large  as  New  York  and  Chicago,  there  are  many 
centers  of  very  dense  population;  if  we  omit  entirely  from 
the  consideration  the  Desert  of  Sahara  and  make  due  allow- 
ance for  some  heavily  wooded  tracts  in  which  live  no  people 
at  all;  and  if  we  then  take  some  fairly  well-known  region 
like  Nigeria  or  Sierra  Leone  as  the  basis  of  estimate,  we  shall 
arrive  at  some  such  figure  as  450,000,000.  In  order  to  satisfy 
any  other  points  that  might  possibly  be  made,  let  us  reduce  this 
by  as  much  as  a  third,  and  we  shall  still  have  300,000,000, 
which  figure  we  feel  justified  in  advancing  as  the  lowest  pos- 
sible estimate  for  the  population  of  Africa;  and  yet  most  books 
tell  us  that  there  are  only  140,000,000  people  on  the  whole 
continent. 

Backwater  may  be  regarded  as  the  reply  to  such  a  posi- 
tion as  that  taken  by  Dr.  Stoddard.  If  the  white  world  con- 
ceives it  to  be  its  destiny  to  exploit  the  darker  races  of  man- 
kind, then  it  simply  remains  for  the  darker  races  to  gird  their 
loins  for  the  contest.  "What  of  the  darker  world  that  watches  ? 
Most  men  belong  to  this  world.  With  Negro  and  Negroid, 
East  Indian,  Chinese,  and  Japanese  they  form  two-thirds  of 
the  population  of  the  world.    A  belief  in  humanity  is  a  belief 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  369 

in  colored  men.  If  the  uplift  of  mankind  must  be  done  by 
men,  then  the  destinies  of  this  world  will  rest  ultimately  in 
the  hands  of  darker  nations.  What,  then,  is  this  dark  world 
thinking?  It  is  thinking  that  as  wild  and  awful  as  this  shame- 
ful war  was,  it  is  nothing  to  compare  with  that  fight  for  free- 
dom which  black  and  brown  and  yellow  men  must  and  will 
make  unless  their  oppression  and  humiliation  and  insult  at 
the  hands  of  the  White  World  cease.  The  Dark  World  is 
going  to  submit  to  its  present  treatment  just  as  long  as  it 
must  and  not  one  moment  longer." 

Both  of  these  books  are  strong,  and  both  are  materialistic; 
and  materialism,  it  must  be  granted,  is  a  very  important  fac- 
tor in  the  world  just  now.  Somewhat  different  in  outlook, 
however,  is  the  book  that  labors  under  an  economic  subject, 
Empire  and  Commerce  in  Africa.  In  general  the  inquiry 
is  concerned  with  the  question,  What  do  we  desire  to  attain, 
particularly  economically,  in  Africa,  and  how  far  is  it  attain- 
able through  policy?  The  discussion  is  mainly  confined  to  the 
three  powers:  England,  France,  and  Germany;  and  special 
merit  attaches  to  the  chapter  on  Abyssinia,  probably  the  best 
brief  account  of  this  country  ever  written.  Mr.  Woolf  an- 
nounces such  fundamental  principles  as  that  the  land  in  Africa 
should  be  reserved  for  the  natives ;  that  there  should  be  syste- 
matic education  of  the  natives  with  a  view  to  training  them 
to  take  part  in,  and  eventually  control,  the  government  of  the 
country;  that  there  should  be  a  gradual  expatriation  of  all 
Europeans  and  their  capitalistic  enterprises;  that  all  revenue 
raised  in  Africa  should  be  applied  to  the  development  of  the 
country  and  the  education  and  health  of  the  inhabitants;  that 
alcohol  should  be  absolutely  prohibited;  and  that  Africa  should 
be  completely  neutralized,  that  is,  in  no  case  should  any  mili- 
tary operations  between  European  states  be  allowed.  The 
difficulties  of  the  enforcement  of  such  a  program  are  of  course 
apparent  to  the  author;  but  with  other  such  volumes  as  this 
to  guide  and  mold  opinion,  the  time  may  indeed  come  at  no 
distant  date  when  Africa  will  cease  to  exist  solely  for  exploi- 
tation and  no  longer  be  the  rebuke  of  Christendom. 

These  four  books  then  express  fairly  well  the  different 
opinions  and  hopes  with  which  Africa  and  the  world  prob- 


37o    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

lem  that  the  continent  raises  have  recently  been  regarded.  It 
remains  simply  to  mention  a  conception  that  after  the  close 
of  the  war  found  many  adherents  in  the  United  States  and 
elsewhere,  and  whose  operation  was  on  a  scale  that  forced 
recognition.  This  was  the  idea  of  the  Provisional  Republic 
of  Africa,  the  Universal  Negro  Improvement  Association  and 
African  Communities  League  of  the  World,  the  Black  Star 
Line  of  steamships,  and  the  Negro  Factories  Corporation,  all 
of  which  activities  were  centered  in  New  York,  had  as  their 
organ  the  Negro  World,  and  as  their  president  and  leading 
spirit  Marcus  Garvey,  who  was  originally  from  Jamaica.  The 
central  thought  that  appealed  to  great  crowds  of  people  and 
won  their  support  was  that  of  freedom  for  the  race  in  every 
sense  of  the  word.  Such  freedom,  it  was  declared,  tran- 
scended the  mere  demand  for  the  enforcement  of  certain  politi- 
cal and  social  rights  and  could  finally  be  realized  only  under 
a  vast  super-government  guiding  the  destinies  of  the  race  in 
Africa,  the  United  States,  the  West  Indies,  and  everywhere 
else  in  the  world.  This  was  to  control  its  people  "just  as  the 
Pope  and  the  Catholic  Church  control  its  millions  in  every 
land."  The  related  ideas  and  activities  were  sometimes  termed 
grandiose  and  they  awakened  much  opposition  on  the  part  of 
the  old  leaders,  the  clergy,  while  conservative  business  stood 
aloof.  At  the  same  time  the  conception  is  one  that  deserves 
to  be  considered  on  its  merits. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  if  promoted  on  a  scale  vast  enough 
such  a  Negro  super-government  as  that  proposed  could  be 
realized.  It  is  true  that  England  and  France  seem  to-day  to 
have  a  firm  grip  on  the  continent  of  Africa,  but  the  experi- 
ence of  Germany  has  shown  that  even  the  mailed  fist  may 
lose  its  strength  overnight.  With  England  beset  with  prob- 
lems in  Ireland  and  the  West  Indies,  in  India  and  Egypt,  it 
is  easy  for  the  millions  in  equatorial  Africa  to  be  made  to 
know  that  even  this  great  power  is  not  invincible  and  in  time 
might  rest  with  Nineveh  and  Tyre.  There  are  things  in  Africa 
that  will  forever  baffle  all  Europeans,  and  no  foreign  governor 
will  ever  know  all  that  is  at  the  back  of  the  black  man's  mind. 
Even  now,  without  the  aid  of  modern  science,  information 
travels  in  a  few  hours  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 


THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  NEW  AGE  371 

the  continent ;  and  those  that  slept  are  beginning  to  be  awake 
and  restless.  Let  this  restlessness  increase,  let  intelligence  also 
increase,  let  the  natives  be  aided  by  their  fever,  and  all  the 
armies  of  Europe  could  be  lost  in  Africa  and  this  ancient 
mother  still  rise  bloody  but  unbowed.  The  realization  of  the 
vision,  however,  would  call  for  capital  on  a  scale  as  vast  as 
that  of  a  modern  war  or  an  international  industrial  enterprise. 
At  the  very  outset  it  would  engage  England  in  nothing  less 
than  a  death-grapple,  especially  as  regards  the  shipping  on 
the  West  Coast.  If  ships  can  not  go  from  Liverpool  to  Sec- 
condee  and  Lagos,  then  England  herself  is  doomed.  The  pos- 
sible contest  appalls  the  imagination.  At  the  same  time  the 
exploiting  that  now  goes  on  in  the  world  can  not  go  on 
forever. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM 

It  is  probably  clear  from  our  study  in  the  preceding  pages 
that  the  history  of  the  Negro  people  in  the  United  States  falls 
jnto  well  defined  periods  or  epochs.  First  of  all  there  was  the 
colonial  era,  extending  from  the  time  of  the  first  coming  of 
Negroes  to  the  English  colonies  to  that  of  the  Revolutionary 
War.  This  divides  into  two  parts,  with  a  line  coming  at  the 
year  1705.  Before  this  date  the  exact  status  of  the  Negro 
was  more  or  less  undefined ;  the  system  of  servitude  was  only 
gradually  passing  into  the  sterner  one  of  slavery ;  and  especially 
in  the  middle  colonies  there  was  considerable  intermixture  of 
the  races.  By  the  year  1705,  however,  it  had  become  generally 
established  that  the  Negro  was  to  be  regarded  not  as  a  per- 
son but  as  a  thing;  and  the  next  seventy  years  were  a  time  of 
increasing  numbers,  but  of  no  racial  coherence  or  spiritual  out- 
look, only  a  spasmodic  insurrection  here  and  there  indicating 
the  yearning  for  a  better  day.  With  the  Revolution  there  came 
a  change,  and  the  second  period  extends  from  this  war  to  the 
Civil  War.  This  also  divides  into  two  parts,  with  a  line  at 
the  year  1830.  In  the  years  immediately  succeeding  the  Revo- 
lution there  was  put  forth  the  first  effective  effort  toward  racial 
organization,  this  being  represented  by  the  work  of  such  men 
as  Richard  Allen  and  Prince  Hall;  but,  in  spite  of  a  new  racial 
consciousness,  the  great  mass  of  the  Negro  people  remained 
in  much  the  same  situation  as  before,  the  increase  in  numbers 
incident  to  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  only  intensifying 
the  ultimate  problem.  About  the  year  1830,  however,  the  very 
hatred  and  ignominy  that  began  to  be  visited  upon  the  Negro 
indicated  that  at  least  he  was  no  longer  a  thing  but  a  person. 
Lynching  began  to  grow  apace,  burlesque  on  the  stage  tended 

372 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  373 

to  depreciate  and  humiliate  the  race,  and  the  South  became 
definitely  united  in  its  defense  of  the  system  of  slavery.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Abolitionists  challenged  the  attitude  that 
was  becoming  popular;  the  Negroes  themselves  began  to  be 
prosperous  and  to  hold  conventions;  and  Nat  Turner's  insur- 
rection thrust  baldly  before  the  American  people  the  great 
moral  and  economic  problem  with  which  they  had  to  deal. 
With  such  divergent  opinions,  in  spite  of  feeble  attempts  at 
compromise,  there  could  be  no  peace  until  the  issue  of  slavery 
at  least  was  definitely  settled.  The  third  great  period  extends  - 
from  the  Civil  War  to  the  opening  of  the  Great  War  in 
Europe.  Like  the  others  it  also  falls  into  two  parts,  the  divi- 
sion coming  at  the  year  1895.  The  thirty  years  from  1865 
to  1895  may  be  regarded  as  an  era  in  which  the  race,  now 
emancipated,  was  mainly  under  the  guidance  of  political  ideals. 
Several  men  went  to  Congress  and  popular  education  began 
to  be  emphasized;  but  the  difficulties  of  Reconstruction  and 
the  outrages  of  the  KuKlux  Klan  were  succeeded  by  an  en- 
veloping system  of  peonage,  and  by  1 890-1 895  the  pendulum 
had  swung  fully  backward  and  in  the  South  disfranchisement 
had  been  arrived  at  as  the  concrete  solution  of  the  political 
phase  of  the  problem.  The  twenty  years  from  1895  to  191 5 
formed  a  period  of  unrest  and  violence,  but  also  of  solid  eco- 
nomic and  social  progress,  the  dominant  influence  being  the 
work  of  Booker  T.  Washington.  With  the  world  war  the  - 
Negro  people  came  face  to  face  with  new  and  vast  problems 
of  economic  adjustment  and  passed  into  an  entirely  different 
period  of  their  racial  history  in  America. 

This  is  not  all,  however.  The  race  is  not  to  be  regarded 
simply  as  existent  unto  itself.  The  most  casual  glance  at  any 
such  account  as  we  have  given  emphasizes  the  importance  of 
the  Negro  in  the  general  history  of  the  United  States.  Other 
races  have  come,  sometimes  with  great  gifts  or  in  great  num- 
bers, but  it  is  upon  this  one  that  the  country's  history  has 
turned  as  on  a  pivot.  It  is  true  that  it  has  been  despised  and 
rejected,  but  more  and  more  it  seems  destined  to  give  new 
proof  that  the  stone  which  the  builders  refused  is  become  the 
head  stone  of  the  corner.    In  the  colonial  era  it  was  the  eco- 


374     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

nomic  advantage  of  slavery  over  servitude  that  caused  it  to 
displace  this  institution  as  a  system  of  labor.  In  the  prelim- 
inary draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  a  noteworthy 
passage  arraigned  the  king  of  England  for  his  insistence  upon 
the  slave-trade,  but  this  was  later  suppressed  for  reasons  of 
policy.  The  war  itself  revealed  clearly  the  fallacy  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  patriots,  who  fought  for  their  rights  as  Englishmen 
but  not  for  the  fundamental  rights  of  man;  and  their  attitude 
received  formal  expression  in  the  compromises  that  entered 
into  the  Constitution.  The  expansion  of  the  Southwest  de- 
pended on  the  labor  of  the  Negro,  whose  history  became  in- 
extricably bound  up  with  that  of  the  cotton-gin ;  and  the  ques- 
tion or  the  excuse  of  fugitives  was  the  real  key  to  the  Seminole 
Wars.  The  long  struggle  culminating  in  the  Civil  War  was 
simply  to  settle  the  status  of  the  Negro  in  the  Republic;  and 
the  legislation  after  the  war  determined  for  a  generation  the 
history  not  only  of  the  South  but  very  largely  of  the  nation 
as  well.  The  later  disfranchising  acts  have  had  overwhelming 
importance,  the  unfair  system  of  national  representation  con- 
trolling the  election  of  19 16  and  thus  the  attitude  of  America 
in  the  world  war. 

This  is  an  astonishing  phenomenon — this  vast  influence  of 
a  people  oppressed,  proscribed,  and  scorned.  The  Negro  is  so 
dominant  in  American  history  not  only  because  he  tests  the 
real  meaning  of  democracy,  not  only  because  he  challenges 
the  conscience  of  the  nation,  but  also  because  he  calls  in  ques- 
tion one's  final  attitude  toward  human  nature  itself.  As  we 
have  seen,  it  is  not  necessarily  the  worker,  not  even  the  crim- 
inal, who  makes  the  ultimate  problem,  but  the  simple  Negro 
of  whatever  quality.  If  this  man  did  not  have  to  work  at  all, 
and  if  his  race  did  not  include  a  single  criminal,  in  American 
opinion  he  would  still  raise  a  question.  It  is  accordingly  from 
the  social  standpoint  that  we  must  finally  consider  the  problem. 
Before  we  can  do  this  we  need  to  study  the  race  as  an  actual 
living  factor  in  American  life;  and  even  before  we  do  that  it 
might  be  in  order  to  observe  the  general  importance  of  the 
Negro  to-day  in  any  discussion  of  the  racial  problems  of  the 
world. 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  375 

1.     World  Aspect 

Any  consideration  of  the  Negro  Problem  in  its  world  aspect 
at  the  present  time  must  necessarily  be  very  largely  concerned 
with  Africa  as  the  center  of  the  Negro  population.  This  in 
turn  directs  attention  to  the  great  colonizing  powers  of  Europe, 
and  especially  to  Great  Britain  as  the  chief  of  these;  and  the 
questions  that  result  are  of  far-reaching  importance  for  the 
whole  fabric  of  modern  civilization.  No  one  can  gainsay  the 
tremendous  contribution  that  England  has  made  to  the  world ; 
every  one  must  respect  a  nation  that  produced  Wyclifre  and 
Shakespeare  and  Darwin,  and  that,  standing  for  democratic 
principles,  has  so  often  stayed  the  tide  of  absolutism  and  an- 
archy; and  it  is  not  without  desert  that  for  three  hundred 
years  this  country  has  held  the  moral  leadership  of  mankind. 
It  may  now  not  unreasonably  be  asked,  however,  if  it  has  not 
lost  some  of  its  old  ideals,  and  if  further  insistence  upon  some 
of  its  policies  would  not  constitute  a  menace  to  all  that  the 
heart  of  humanity  holds  dear. 

As  a  preliminary  to  our  discussion  let  us  remark  two  men 
by  way  of  contrast.  A  little  more  than  seventy  years  ago  a 
great  traveler  set  out  upon  the  first  of  three  long  journeys 
through  central  and  southern  Africa.  He  was  a  renowned 
explorer,  and  yet  to  him  "the  end  of  the  geographical  feat 
was  only  the  beginning  of  the  enterprise."  Said  Henry  Drum- 
mond  of  him:  "Wherever  David  Livingstone's  footsteps  are 
crossed  in  Africa  the  fragrance  of  his  memory  seems  to  re- 
main." On  one  occasion  a  hunter  was  impaled  on  the  horn 
of  a  rhinoceros,  and  a  messenger  ran  eight  miles  for  the  physi- 
cian. Although  he  himself  had  been  wounded  for  life  by  a 
lion  and  his  friends  said  that  he  should  not  ride  at  night 
through  a  wood  infested  with  beasts,  Livingstone  insisted  on 
his  Christian  duty  to  go,  only  to  find  that  the  man  had  died 
and  to  be  obliged  to  retrace  his  footsteps.  Again  and  again 
his  party  would  have  been  destroyed  if  it  had  not  been  for 
his  own  unbounded  tact  and  courage,  and  after  his  death  at 
Chitambo's  village  Susi  and  Chuma  journeyed  for  nine  months 
and  over  eight  hundred  miles  to  take  his  body  to  the  coast. 


376    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

"We  work  for  a  glorious  future,"  said  he,  "which  we  are  not 
destined  to  see — the  golden  age  which  has  not  been,  but  will 
yet  be.  We  are  only  morning-stars  shining  in  the  dark,  but 
the  glorious  morn  will  break,  the  good  time  coming  yet.  For 
this  time  we  work;  may  God  accept  our  imperfect  service." 

About  the  time  that  Livingstone  was  passing  off  the  scene 
another  strong  man,  one  of  England's  "empire  builders,"  be- 
gan his  famous  career.  Going  first  to  South  Africa  as  a  young 
man  in  quest  of  health,  Cecil  Rhodes  soon  made  a  huge  for- 
tune out  of  Kimberley  diamonds  and  Transvaal  gold,  and  by 
1890  had  become  the  Prime  Minister  of  Cape  Colony.  In  the 
pursuit  of  his  aims  he  was  absolutely  unscrupulous.  He  re- 
-fused to  recognize  any  rights  of  the  Portuguese  in  Matabele- 
land  and  Mashonaland;  he  drove  hard  bargains  with  the  Ger- 
mans and  the  French;  he  defied  the  Boers;  and  to  him  the 
native  Africans  were  simply  so  many  tools  for  the  heaping 
up  of  gold.  Nobody  ever  said  of  him  that  he  left  a  "fragrant 
memory"  behind  him;  but  thousands  of  bruised  bodies  and 
broken  hearts  bore  witness  to  his  policy.  According  to  the 
ideals  of  modern  England,  however,  he  was  a  great  man.  What 
the  Negro  in  the  last  analysis  wonders  is :  Who  was  right, 
Livingstone  or  Rhodes?  And  which  is  the  world  to  choose, 
Christ  or  Mammon? 

There  are  two  fundamental  assumptions  upon  which  all  so- 
called  Western  civilization  is  based — that  of  racial  and  that  of 
religious  superiority.  Sight  has  been  lost  of  the  fact  that  there 
is  really  no  such  thing  as  a  superior  race,  that  only  individuals 
are  superior  one  to  another,  and  a  popular  English  poet  has 
sung  of  "the  white  man's  burden"  and  of  "lesser  breeds  with- 
out the  law."  These  two  assumptions  have  accounted  for  all 
of  the  misunderstanding  that  has  arisen  between  the  West  and 
the  East,  for  China  and  Japan,  India  and  Egypt  can  not  see 
by  what  divine  right  men  from  the  West  suppose  that  they 
have  the  only  correct  ancestry  or  fcj  what  conceit  they  presume 
to  have  the  only  true  faith.  Let  them  but  be  accepted,  how- 
ever, let  a  nation  be  led  by  them  as  guiding-stars,  and  England 
becomes  justified  in  forcing  her  system  upon  India,  she  finds  it 
necessary  to  send  missionaries  to  Japan,  and  the  lion's  paw 
pounces  upon  the  very  islands  of  the  sea. 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  377 

The  whole  world,  however,  is  now  rising  as  never  before 
against  any  semblance  of  selfishness  on  the  part  of  great  pow- 
ers, and  it  is  more  than  ever  clear  that  before  there  can  be 
any  genuine  progress  toward  the  brotherhood  of  man,  or 
toward  comity  among  nations,  one  man  will  have  to  give  some 
consideration  to  the  other  man's  point  of  view.  One  people 
will  have  to  respect  another  people's  tradition.  The  Russo- 
Japanese  War  gave  men  a  new  vision.  The  whole  world  gazed 
upon  a  new  power  in  the  East — one  that  could  be  dealt  with 
only  upon  equal  terms.  Meanwhile  there  was  unrest  in  India, 
and  in  Africa  there  were  insurrections  of  increasing  bitterness 
and  fierceness.  Africa  especially  had  been  misrepresented.  The 
people  were  all  said  to  be  savages  and  cannibals,  almost  hope- 
lessly degraded.  The  traders  and  the  politicians  knew  better. 
They  knew  that  there  were  tribes  and  tribes  in  Africa,  that 
many  of  the  chief's  were  upright  and  wise  and  proud  of  their 
tradition,  and  that  the  land  could  not  be  seized  any  too  quickly. 
Hence  they  made  haste  to  get  into  the  game. 

It  is  increasingly  evident  also  that  the  real  leadership  of 
the  world  is  a  matter  not  of  race,  not  even  of  professed  re- 
ligion, but  of  principle.  Within  the  last  hundred  years,  as 
science  has  flourished  and  colonization  grown,  we  have  been 
led  astray  by  materialism.  The  worship  of  the  dollar  has  be- 
come a  fetish,  and  the  man  or  the  nation  that  had  the  money 
felt  that  it  was  ordained  of  God  to  rule  the  universe.  Ger- 
many was  led  astray  by  this  belief,  but  it  is  England,  not  Ger- 
many, that  has  most  thoroughly  mastered  the  Art  of  Coloniza- 
tion. Crown  colonies  are  to  be  operated  in  the  interest  of  the 
owners.  Jingoism  is  king.  It  matters  not  that  the  people  in 
India  and  Africa,  in  Hayti  and  the  Philippines,  object  to  our 
benevolence;  we  know  what  is  good  for  them  and  therefore 
they  should  be  satisfied. 

In  Jamaica  to-day  the  poorer  people  can  not  get  employ- 
ment; and  yet,  rather  than  accept  the  supply  at  hand,  the 
powers  of  privilege  import  "coolie"  labor,  a  still  cheaper  sup- 
ply. In  Sierra  Leone,  where  certainly  there  has  been  time  to 
see  the  working  of  the  principle,  native  young  men  crowd 
about  the  wharves  and  seize  any  chance  to  earn  a  penny,  sim- 


378     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

ply  because  there  is  no  work  at  hand  to  do — nothing  that 
would  genuinely  nourish  independence  and  self-respect. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  worship  of  industrialism,  with  its 
attendant  competition,  finally  brought  about  the  most  disas- 
trous war  in  history  and  such  a  breakdown  of  all  principles 
of  morality  as  made  the  whole  world  stand  aghast.  Woman- 
hood was  no  longer  sacred;  old  ideas  of  ethics  vanished;  Christ 
himself  was  crucified  again — everything  holy  and  lovely  was 
given  to  the  grasping  demon  of  Wealth. 

Suddenly  men  realized  that  England  had  lost  the  moral 
leadership  of  the  world.  Lured  by  the  ideals  of  Rhodes,  the 
country  that  gave  to  mankind  Magna  Charta  seemed  now  bent 
only  on  its  own  aggrandizement  and  preservation.  Germany's 
colonies  were  seized,  and  anything  that  threatened  the  per- 
manence of  the  dominant  system,  especially  unrest  on  the  part 
of  the  native  African,  was  throttled.  Briton  and  Boer  began 
to  feel  an  identity  of  interest,  and  especially  was  it  made  known 
that  American  Negroes  were  not  wanted. 

Just  what  the  situation  is  to-day  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
simple  matter  of  foreign  missions,  the  policy  of  missionary 
organizations  in  both  England  and  America  being  dictated  by 
the  political  policy  of  the  empire.  The  appointing  of  Negroes 
by  the  great  American  denominations  for  service  in  Africa  has 
practically  ceased,  for  American  Negroes  are  not  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  any  portion  of  the  continent  except  Liberia,  which, 
after  all,  is  a  very  small  part  of  the  whole.  For  the  time  being 
the  little  republic  seems  to  receive  countenance  from  the  great 
powers  as  a  sort  of  safety-valve  through  which  the  aspiration 
of  the  Negro  people  might  spend  itself;  but  it  is  evident  that 
the  present  understanding  is  purely  artificial  and  can  not  last. 
Even  the  Roman  Empire  declined,  and  Germany  lost  her  hold 
in  Africa  overnight.  Of  course  it  may  be  contended  that  the 
British  Empire  to-day  is  not  decadent  but  stronger  than  ever. 
At  the  same  time  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Englishman  and 
Boer  alike  regard  these  teeming  millions  of  prolific  black  peo- 
ple always  with  concern  and  sometimes  with  dismay.  Natives 
of  the  Congo  still  bear  the  marks  of  mutilation,  and  men  in 
South  Africa  chafe  under  unjust  land  acts  and  constant  in- 
dignities in  their  daily  life. 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  379 

Here  rises  the  question  for  our  own  country.  To  the  United 
States  at  last  has  come  that  moral  leadership — that  obliga- 
tion to  do  the  right  thing — that  opportunity  to  exhibit  the  high- 
est honor  in  all  affairs  foreign  or  domestic — that  is  the  ulti- 
mate test  of  greatness.  Is  America  to  view  this  great  problem 
in  Africa  sympathetically  and  find  some  place  for  the  groping 
for  freedom  of  millions  of  human  beings,  or  is  she  to  be  sim- 
ply a  pawn  in  the  game  of  English  colonization?  Is  she  to 
abide  by  the  principles  that  guided  her  in  1776,  or  simply  seize 
her  share  of  the  booty?  The  Negro  either  at  home  or  abroad 
is  only  one  of  many  moral  problems  with  which  she  has  to 
deal.  At  the  close  of  the  war  extravagance  reigned,  crime  was 
rampant,  and  against  any  one  of  three  or  four  races  there  was 
insidious  propaganda.  To  add  to  the  difficulties,  the  govern- 
ment was  still  so  dominated  by  politics  and  officialdom  that 
it  was  almost  always  impossible  to  get  things  done  at  the  time 
they  needed  to  be  done.  At  the  same  time  every  patriot  knows 
that  America  is  truly  the  hope  of  the  world.  Into  her  civiliza- 
tion and  her  glory  have  entered  not  one  but  many  races.  All 
go  forth  against  a  common  enemy;  all  should  share  the  duties 
and  the  privileges  of  citizenship.  In  such  a  country  the  law 
can  know  no  difference  of  race  or  class  or  creed,  provided  all 
are  devoted  to  the  general  welfare.  Such  is  the  obligation  rest- 
ing upon  the  United  States — such  the  challenge  of  social,  eco- 
nomic, and  moral  questions  such  as  never  before  faced  the  chil- 
dren of  men.  That  she  be  worthy  of  her  opportunity  all  would 
pray ;  to  the  fulfilment  of  her  destiny  all  should  help.  The  eyes 
of  the  world  are  upon  her;  the  scepter  of  the  ages  is  in  her 
hand. 


2.     The  Negro  in  American  Life 

If  now  we  come  to  the  Negro  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  no  other  race  in  the  Amer- 
ican body  politic,  not  even  the  Anglo-Saxon,  has  been  studied 
more  critically  than  this  one,  and  treatment  has  varied  all  the 
jthe  celebration  of  virtues  to  the  bitterest  hostility 
and  malignity.     It  is  cieany  iunaamentally  necessary  10  pay- 


380     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

some  attention  to  racial  characteristics  and  gifts.  In  recent 
years  there  has  been  much  discussion  from  the  standpoint  of 
biology,  and  special  emphasis  has  been  placed_Pn  fhe  emotional 
temperament  of  4he  race.  The  Negro,  however,  submits 
that  in  the  United  States  he  has  not  been  chiefly  responsible 
for  such  miscegenation  as  has  taken  place;  but  he  is  not  con- 
sent to  rest  simply  upon  a  tu  quo  que.  He  calls  attention  to  the 
fact  that  whereas  it  has  been  charged  that  lynchings  find  their 
excuse  in  rape,  it  has  been  shown  again  and  again  that  this 
crime  is  the  excuse  for  only  one-fourth  or  one-fifth  of  the  cases 
of  violence.  If  for  the  moment  we  suppose  that  there  is  no 
question  about  guilt  in  a  fourth  or  a  fifth  of  the  cases,  the 
overwhelming  fraction  that  remains  indicates  that  there  are 
other  factors  of  the  highest  importance  that  have  to  be  con- 
sidered in  any  ultimate  adjustment  of  the  situation.  In  every 
case  accordingly  the  Negro  asks  only  for  a  fair  trial  in  court 
— not  too  hurried;  and  he  knows  that  in  many  instances  a 
calm  study  of  the  facts  will  reveal  nothing  more  than  fright 
or  hysteria  on  the  part  of  a  woman  or  even  other  circum- 
stances not  more  incriminating. 

Unfortunately  the  whole  question  of  the  Negro  has  been 
beclouded  by  misrepresentation  as  has  no  other  social  ques- 
tion before  the  American  people,  and  the  race  asks  simply  first 
of  all  that  the  tissue  of  depreciation  raised  by  prejudice  be 
done  away  with  in  order  that  it  may  be  judged  and  estimated 
for  its  quality.  America  can  make  no  charges  against  any  ele- 
ment of  her  population  while  she  denies  the  fundamental 
right  of  citizenship — the  protection  of  the  individual  person. 
Too  often  mistakes  are  made,  and  no  man  is  so  humble  or  so 
low  that  he  should  be  deprived  of  his  life  without  due  process 
of  law.  The  Negro  undoubtedly  has  faults.  At  the  same  time, 
in  order  that  his  gifts  may  receive  just  consideration,  the  tra- 
dition of  burlesque  must  for  the  time  being  be  forgotten.  All 
stories  about  razors,  chickens,  and  watermelons  must  be  rele- 
gated to  the  rear;  and  even  the  revered  and  beloved  "black 
mammy"  must  receive  an  affectionate  but  a  long  farewell. 

The  fact  is  that  the  Negro  has  such  ^contagious  brand  of 

_J3UjaojM:hatjpanj^eople  never  realize  that  this  plays  only  on 

the  surface.  The  real  background  of  the  race  is  one  of  tragedy. 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  381 

It  is  not  in  current  jest  but  in  the  wail  of  the  old  melodies 
that  the  soul  of  this  people  is  found.  There  is  something  ele- 
mental about  the  heart  of  the  race,  something  that  finds  its 
origin  in  the  forest  and  in  the  falling  of  the  stars.  There  is 
something  grim  about  it  too,  something  that  speaks  of  the 
lash,  of  the  child  torn  from  its  mother's  bosom,  of  the  dead 
body  swinging  at  night  by  the  roadside.  The  race  has  suffered, 
and  in  its  suffering  lies  its  destiny  and  its  contribution  to  Amer- 
ica; and  hereby  hangs  a  tale. 

If  we  study  the  real  quality  of  the  Negro  we  shall  find  that 
two  things  are  observable.  One  is  that  any  distinction  so  Jar^ 
won  by  a  member  of  the  race  in  America  has  been  almost 
always  irrsnnie^one "of  the  arts;  and  the  other  is  that_any__in-"^ 
fluence  so  far  exerted  by  theTSFegro~orT  American  civilization 
HaTSeen  primarily  in  thefield  of  aesthetics.  The  reason  is  not 
far  to  seek,  and  is  to  be  f6Und  ln^fTiFartTstic  striving  even  ot 
untutored  Negroes.  The  instinct  for  beauty  insists  upon  an 
outlet,  and  if  one  can  find  no  better  picture  he  will  paste  a 
circus  poster  or  a  flaring  advertisement  on  the  wall.  Very 
few  homes  have  not  at  least  a  geranium  on  the  windowsill  or 
a  rosebush  in  the  garden.  If  we  look  at  the  matter  conversely 
we  shall  find  that  those  things  which  are  most  picturesque 
make  to  the  Negro  the  readiest  appeal.  Red  is  his  favorite 
color  simply  because  it  is  the  most  pronounced  of  all  colors. 
The  principle  holds  in  the  sphere  of  religion.  In  some  of  our 
communities  Negroes  are  known  to  "get  happy"  in  church. 
It  is,  however,  seldom  a  sermon  on  the  rule  of  faith  or  the  plan 
of  salvation  that  awakens  such  ecstasy,  but  rather  a  vivid  por- 
trayal of  the  beauties  of  heaven,  with  the  walls  of  jasper,  the 
feast  of  milk  and  honey,  and  the  angels  with  palms  in  their 
hands.  The  appeal  is  primarily  sensuous,  and  it  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  the  Negro  is  thrilled  not  so  much  by  the 
moral  as  by  the  artistic  and  pictorial  elements  in  religion. 
Every  member  of  the  race  is  an  incipient  poet,  and  all  are 
enthralled  by  music  and  oratory. 

Illustrations  are  abundant.  We  might  refer  to  the  oratory 
of  Douglass,  to  the  poetry  of  Dunbar,  to  the  picturesque  style 
of  DuBois,  to  the  mysticism  of  the  paintings  of  Tanner,  to 
the  tragic  sculpture  of  Meta  Warrick  Fuller,  and  to  a  long 


382     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

line  of  singers  and  musicians.  Even  Booker  Washington, 
most  practical  of  Americans,  proves  the  point,  the  distinguish- 
ing qualities  of  his  speeches  being  anecdote  and  vivid  illustra- 
tion. It  is  best,  however,  to  consider  members  of  the  race  who 
were  entirely  untaught  in  the  schools.  On  one  occasion  Harriet 
Tubman,  famous  for  her  work  in  the  Underground  Railroad, 
was  addressing  an  audience  and  describing  a  great  battle  in 
the  Civil  War.  "And  then,"  said  she,  "we  saw  the  lightning, 
and  that  was  the  guns;  and  then  we  heard  the  thunder,  and 
that  was  the  big  guns;  and  then  we  heard  the  rain  falling, 
and  that  was  drops  of  blood  falling ;  and  when  we  came  to  git 
in  the  craps,  it  was  dead  men  that  we  reaped."  Two  decades 
after  the  war  John  Jasper,  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  astonished 
the  most  intelligent  hearers  by  the  power  of  his  imagery.  He 
preached  not  only  that  the  "sun  do  move,"  but  also  of  "dry 
bones  in  the  valley,"  the  glories  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  and 
on  many  similar  subjects  that  have  been  used  by  other  preach- 
ers, sometimes  with  hardly  less  effect,  throughout  the  South. 
In  his  own  way  Jasper  was  an  artist.  He  was  eminently  imag- 
inative; and  it  is  with  this  imaginative — this  artistic — quality 
that  America  has  yet  to  reckon. 

The  importance  of  the  influence  has  begun  to  be  recognized, 
and  on  the  principle  that  to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,  in 
increasing  measure  the  Negro  is  being  blamed  for  the  ills  of 
American  life,  a  ready  excuse  being  found  in  the  perversion 
and  debasement  of  Negro  music.  We  have  seen  discussions 
whose  reasoning,  condensed,  was  somewhat  as  follows :  The 
Negro  element  is  daily  becoming  more  potent  in  American 
society;  American  society  is  daily  becoming  more  immoral; 
therefore  at  the  door  of  the  Negro  may  be  laid  the  increase  in 
divorce  and  all  the  other  evils  of  society.  The  most  serious 
charge  brought  against  the  Negro  intellectually  is  that  he  has 
not  yet  developed  the  great  creative  or  organizing  mind  that 
points  the  way  of  civilization.  He  most  certainly  has  not,  and 
in  this  he  is  not  very  unlike  all  the  other  people  in  America. 
The  whole  country  is  still  in  only  the  earlier  years  of  its  striv- 
ing. While  the  United  States  has  made  great  advance  in  ap- 
plied science,  she  has  as  yet  produced  no  Shakespeare  or 
Beethoven.    If  America  has  not  yet  reached  her  height  after 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  383 

three  hundred  years  of  striving,  she  ought  not  to  be  impatient 
with  the  Negro  after  only  sixty  years  of  opportunity.  But 
all  signs  go  to  prove  the  assumption  of  limited  intellectual 
ability  fundamentally  false.  Already  some  of  the  younger  men 
of  the  race  have  given  the  highest  possible  promise. 

If  all  of  this,  however,  is  granted,  and  if  the  Negro's  exem- 
plification of  the  principle  of  self-help  is  also  recognized,  the 
question  still  remains :  Just  what  is  the  race  worth  as  a  con- 
structive factor  in  American  civilization?  Is  it  finally  to  be 
an  agency  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  nation,  or  simply  one  of 
the  forces  that  retard?  What  is  its  real  promise  in  American 
life? 

In  reply  to  this  it  might  be  worth  while  to  consider  first 
of  all  the  country's  industrial  life.  The  South,  and  very  largely 
the  whole  country,  depends  upon  Negro  men  and  women  as 
the  stable  labor  supply  in  such  occupations  as  farming,  saw- 
milling,  mining,  cooking,  and  washing.  All  of  this  is  hard 
work,  and  necessary  work.  In  19 10,  of  3,178,554  Negro  men 
at  work,  981,922  were  listed  as  farm  laborers  and  798,509  as 
farmers.  That  is  to  say,  56  per  cent  of  the  whole  number 
were  engaged  in  raising  farm  products  either  on  their  own 
account  or  by  way  of  assisting  somebody  else,  and  the  great 
staples  of  course  were  the  cotton  and  corn  of  the  Southern 
states.  If  along  with  the  farmers  we  take  those  engaged  in 
the  occupations  employing  the  next  greatest  numbers  of  men 
— those  of  the  building  and  hand  trades,  saw  and  planing  mills, 
as  well  as  those  of  railway  firemen  and  porters,  draymen,  team- 
sters, and  coal  mine  operatives — we  shall  find  a  total  of  71.2 
per  cent  engaged  in  such  work  as  represents  the  very  founda- 
tion of  American  industry.  Of  the  women  at  work,  1,047,146, 
or  52  per  cent,  were  either  farm  laborers  or  farmers,  and  28 
per  cent  more  were  either  cooks  or  washerwomen.  In  other 
.words,  a  total  of  exactly  80  per  cent  were  engaged  in  some 
of  jhe_  hardest  and  at  the  same  time  some  of  the  most  vital  '  >, 
labor  in  our  home  and  industrial  life.  The  new  emphasis  on 
the  Negro  as  an  industrial  factor  in  the  course  of  the  recent 
war  is  well  known.  When  immigration  ceased,  upon  his  shoul- 
Hpr^vpr^largply  fell  the  task  of  keeping  the  country  and  the 
army  alive.   Since  the  war  closed  he  has  been  on  the  defensive 


384    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

in  the  North ;  but  a  country  that  wishes  to  consider  all  of  the 
factors  that  enter  into  its  gravest  social  problem  could  never 
forget  his  valiant  service  in  191 8.  Let  any  one  ask,  moreover, 
even  the  most  prejudiced  observer,  if  he  would  like  to  see  every 
Negro  in  the  country  out  of  it,  and  he  will  then  decide  whether 
economically  the  Negro  is  a  liability  or  an  asset. 
""Again,  consider  the  Negro  soldier.  In  all  our  history  there 
are  no  pages  more  heroic,  more  pathetic,  than  those  detailing 
the  exploits  of  black  men.  We  remember  the  Negro,  three 
thousand  strong,  fighting  for  the  liberties  of  America  when 
his  own  race  was  still  held  in  bondage.  We  remember  the  deeds 
at  Port  Hudson,  Fort  Pillow,  and  Fort  Wagner.  We  remem- 
ber Santiago  and  San  Juan  Hill,  not  only  how  Negro  men 
went  gallantly  to  the  charge,  but  how  a  black  regiment  faced 
pestilence  that  the  ranks  of  their  white  comrades  might  not 
be  decimated.  And  then  Carrizal.  Once  more,  at  an  unex- 
pected moment,  the  heart  of  the  nation  was  thrilled  by  the 
troopers  of  the  Tenth  Cavalry.  Once  more,  despite  Browns- 
ville, the  tradition  of  Fort  Wagner  was  preserved  and  passed 
on.  And  then  came  the  greatest  of  all  wars.  Again  was  the 
Negro  summoned  to  the  colors — summoned  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  his  numbers.  Others  might  desert,  but  not  he;  others 
might  be  spies  or  strikers,  but  not  he — not  he  in  the  time  of 
peril.  In  peace  or  war,  in  victory  or  danger,  he  has  always 
been  loyal  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

,  Not  only,  however,  does  the  Negro  give  promise  by  reason 
of  his  economic  worth;  not  only  does  he  deserve  the  fullest 
rights  of  citizenship  on  the  basis  of  his  work  as  a  soldier;  he 
brings  nothing  less  than  a  great  spiritual  contribution  to  civili- 
zation in  America^His  is  a  race  of  enthusiasm,  imagination, 
and  spiritual  fervor;  and  after  all  the  doubt  and  fear  through 
which  it  has  passed  there  still  rests  with  it  an  abiding  faith  in 
God.  Around  us  everywhere  are  commercialism,  politics,  graft 
— sordidness,  selfishness,  cynicism.  We  need  hope  and  love,  a 
new  birth  of  idealism,  a  new  faith  in  the  unseen.  Already 
the  work  of  some  members  of  the  race  has  pointed  the  way  to 
great  things  in  the  realm  of  conscious  art ;  but  above  even  art 
soars  the  great  world  of  the  spirit.    This  it  is  that  America 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  3&5 

most  sadly  needs;  this  it  is  that  her  most  fiercely  persecuted 
children  bring  to  her. 

Obviously  now  if  the  Negro,  if  any  race,  is  to  make  to 
America  the  contribution  of  which  it  is  capable,  it  must  be 
free ;  and  this  raises  the  whole  question  of  relation  to  the  rest 
of  the  body  politic.  One  of  the  interesting  phenomena  of  so- 
ciety in  America  is  that  the  more  foreign  elements  enter  into 
the  "melting  pot"  and  advance  in  culture,  the  more  do  they 
cling  to  their  racial  identity.  Incorporation  into  American  life, 
instead  of  making  the  Greek  or  the  Pole  or  the  Irishman  for- 
get his  native  country,  makes  him  all  the  more  jealous  of  its 
traditions.  The  more  a  center  of  any  one  of  these  nationali- 
ties develops,  the  more  wealthy  and  cultured  its  members  be- 
come, the  more  do  we  find  them  proud  of  the  source  from 
which  they  sprang.  The  Irishman  is  now  so  much  an  Amer- 
ican that  he  controls  whole  wards  in  our  large  cities,  and  some- 
times the  cities  themselves.  All  the  same  he  clings  more  tena- 
ciously than  ever  to  the  celebration  of  March  17.  When  an 
isolated  Greek  came  years  ago,  poor  and  friendless,  nobody 
thought  very  much  about  him,  and  he  effaced  himself  as  much 
as  possible,  taking  advantage,  however,  of  any  opportunity  that 
offered  for  self-improvement  or  economic  advance.  When 
thousands  came  and  the  newcomers  could  take  inspiration 
from  those  of  their  brothers  who  had  preceded  them  and 
achieved  success,  nationality  asserted  itself.  Larger  groups 
now  talked  about  Venizelos  and  a  greater  Greece ;  their  chests 
expanded  at  the  thought  of  Marathon  and  Plato ;  and  com- 
panies paraded  amid  applause  as  they  went  to  fight  in  the  Bal- 
kans. In  every  case,  with  increasing  intelligence  and  wealth, 
race  pride  asserted  itself.  At  the  same  time  no  one  would 
think  of  denying  to  the  Greek  or  the  Irishman  or  the  Italian 
his  full  rights  as  an  American  citizen. 

It  is  a  paradox  indeed,  this  thing  of  a  race's  holding  its 
identity  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  supposed  to  lose  this  in 
the  larger  civilization.  Apply  the  principle  to  the  Negro.  Very 
soon  after  the  Civil  War,  when  conditions  were  chaotic  and 
ignorance  was  rampant,  the  ideals  constantly  held  before  the 
race  were  those  of  white  people.  Some  leaders  indeed  meas- 
ured success  primarily  by  the  extent  to  which  they  became 


c 


386    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

merged  in  the  white  man's  life.  At  the  time  this  was  very 
natural.  A  struggling  people  wished  to  show  that  it  could  be 
judged  by  the  standards  of  the  highest  civilization  within  sight, 
and  it  did  so.  To-day  the  tide  has  changed.  The  race  now 
numbers  a  few  millionaires.  In  almost  every  city  there  are 
beautiful  homes  owned  by  Negroes.  Some  men  have  reached 
high  attainment  in  scholarship,  and  the  promise  grows  greater 
and  greater  in  art  and  science.  Accordingly  the  Negro  now 
loves  his  own,  cherishes  his  own,  teaches  his  boys  about  black 
heroes,  and  honors  and  glorifies  his  own  black  women.  Schools 
and  churches  and  all  sorts  of  cooperative  enterprises  testify  to 
the  new  racial  self-respect,  while  a  genuine  Negro  drama  has 
begun  to  flourish.  A  whole  people  has  been  reborn;  a  whole 
race  has  found  its  soul. 


3.     Face  to  Face 

Even  when  all  that  has  been  said  is  granted,  it  is  still  some- 
times maintained  that  the  Negro  is  the  one  race  that  can  not 
and  will  not  be  permitted  to  enter  into  the  full  promise  of 
American  life.  Other  elements,  it  is  said,  even  if  difficult  to 
assimilate,  may  gradually  be  brought  into  the  body  politic, 
but  the  Negro  is  the  one  element  that  may  be  tolerated  but 
not  assimilated,  utilized  but  not  welcomed  to  the  fullness  of 
the  country's  glory. 

However,  the  Negro  has  no  reason  to  be  discouraged.  If 
one  will  but  remember  that  after  all  slavery  was  but  an  inci- 
dent and  recall  the  status  of  the  Negro  even  in  the  free  states 
ten  years  before  the  Civil  War,  he  will  be  able  to  see  a  steady 
line  of  progress  forward.  After  the  great  moral  and  economic 
awakening  that  gave  the  race  its  freedom,  the  pendulum  swung 
backward,  and  finally  it  reached  its  farthest  point  of  proscrip- 
tion, of  lawlessness,  and  inhumanity.  No  obscuring  of  the 
vision  for  the  time  being  should  blind  us  to  the  reading  of 
the  great  movement  of  history. 

To-day  in  the  whole  question  of  the  Negro  problem  there 
are  some  matters  of  pressing  and  general  importance.  One 
that  is  constantly  thrust  forward  is  that  of  the  Negro  criminalT 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  387 

On  this  the  answer  is  clear.  If  a  man — Negro  or  otherwise — 
is  a  criminal,  he  is  an  enemy  of  society,  and  society  demands 
that  he  be  placed  where  he  will  do  the  least  harm.  If  execu- 
tion is  necessary,  this  should  take  place  in  private;  and  in 
no  case  should  the  criminal  be  so  handled  as  to  corrupt  the 
morals  or  arouse  the  morbid  sensibilities  of  the  populace.  At 
the  same  time  simple  patriotism  would  demand  that  by  uplift- 
ing home  surroundings,  good  schools,  and  wholesome  recrea- 
tion everything  possible  be  done  for  Negro  children  as  for 
other  children  of  the  Republic,  so  that  just  as  few  of  them 
as  possible  may  graduate  into  the  criminal  class. 

Another  matter,  closely  akin  to  this,  is  that_pf  the  astonish- 
ing lusFfnr  tortnr^jHat  iiiuie  and  lnrjfelsactuating  the  Amer- 
ican people.  When  in  1835  Mcintosh  was  burned  in  St.  Louis 
for  the  murder  of  an  officer,  the  American  people  stood  aghast, 
and  Abraham  Lincoln,  just  coming  into  local  prominence, 
spoke  as  if  the  very  foundations  of  the  young  republic  had 
been  shaken.  After  the  Civil  War,  however,  horrible  lynch- 
ings  became  frequent;  and  within  the  last  decade  we  have 
seen  a  Negro  boy  stabbed  in  numberless  places  while  on  his 
way  to  the  stake,  we  have  seen  the  eyes  of  a  Negro  man 
burned  out  with  hot  irons  and  pieces  of  his  flesh  cut  off,  and 
a  Negro  woman — whose  only  offense  was  a  word  of  protest 
against  the  lynching  of  her  husband — while  in  the  state  of 
advanced  pregnancy  hanged  head  downwards,  her  clothing 
burned  from  her  body,  and  herself  so  disemboweled  that  her 
unborn  babe  fell  to  the  ground.  We  submit  that  any  citizens 
who  commit  such  deeds  as  these  are  deserving  of  the  most 
serious  concern  of  their  country;  and  when  they  bring  their 
little  children  to  behold  their  acts — when  baby  fingers  handle 
mutilated  flesh  and  baby  eyes  behold  such  pictures  as  we  have 
suggested — a  crime  has  been  committed  against  the  very  name 
of  childhood.  Most  frequently  it  will  be  found  that  the  men 
who  do  these  things  have  had  only  the  most  meager  educa- 
tional advantages,  and  that  generally — but  not  always — they 
live  in  remote  communities,  away  from  centers  of  enlighten- 
ment, so  that  their  whole  course  of  life  is  such  as  to  cultivate 
provincialism.  With  not  the  slightest  touch  of  irony  what- 
ever we  sueeest  that  these  men  need  a  crusade  of  education 


388    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

in  books  and  in  the  fundamental  obligations  of  citizenship. 

/  At  present  their  ignorance,  their  prejudice,  and  their  lack  of 

I    moral  sense  constitute  a  national  menace. 

^  It  is  full  time  to  pause.  We  have  already  gone  too  far.  The 
Negro  problem  is  only  an  index  to  the  ills  of  society  in  Amer- 
ica. In  our  haste  to  get  rich  or  to  meet  new  conditions  we 
are  in  danger  of  losing  all  of  our  old  standards  of  conduct,  of 
training,  and  of  morality.  Our  courts  need  to  summon  a  new 
respect  for  themselves.  The  average  citizen  knows  only  this 
about  them,  that  he  wants  to  keep  away  from  them.  So  far 
we  have  not  been  assured  of  justice.  The  poor  man  has  not 
stood  an  equal  chance  with  the  rich,  nor  the  black  with  the 
white.  Money  has  been  freely  used,  even  for  the  changing  of 
laws  if  need  be ;  and  the  sentencing  of  a  man  of  means  gen- 
erally means  only  that  he  will  have  a  new  trial.  The  murders 
in  any  American  city  average  each  year  fifteen  or  twenty  times 
as  many  as  in  an  English  or  French  city  of  the  same  size. 
Our  churches  need  a  new  baptism;  they  have  lost  the  faith. 
The  same  principle  applies  in  our  home-life,  in  education,  in| 
literature.  The  family  altar  is  almost  extinct ;  learning  is  mor< 
easy  than  sound;  and  in  literature  as  in  other  forms  of  art  an>| 
passing  fad  is  able  to  gain  followers  and  pose  as  worthy' 
achievement.  All  along  the  line  we  need  more  uprightness — ■ 
more  strength.  Even  when  a  man  has  committed  a  crime,  he 
must  receive  justice  in  court.  Within  recent  years  we  have 
heard  too  much  about  "speedy  trials,"  which  are  often  noth- 
ing more  than  legalized  lynchings.  If  it  has  been  decreed  that 
a  man  is  to  wait  for  a  trial  one  week  or  one  year,  the  mob 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  and,  if  need  be,  all  the 
soldiery  of  the  United  States  must  be  called  forth  to  prevent 
the  storming  of  a  jail.  Fortunately  the  last  few  years  have 
shown  us  several  sheriffs  who  had  this  conception  of  their 
duty. 

In  the  last  analysis  this  may  mean  that  more  responsibility 
and  more  force  will  have  to  be  lodged  in  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. Within  recent  years  the  dignity  of  the  United  States 
has  been  seriously  impaired.  The  time  seems  now  to  have 
come  when  the  Government  must  make  a  new  assertion  of 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  389 

its  integrity  and  its  authority.    No  power  in  the  country  can 
be  stronger  than  that  of  the  United  States  of  .America. 

For  the  time  being.  thenT  this  is  what  we  need — a  stern 
adherence  to  law.  If  men  will  not  be  good,  they  must  at  least 
be  made  to  behave.  No  one  will  pretend,  however,  that  an 
adjustment  on  such  a  basis  is  finally  satisfactory.  Above  the 
law  of  the  state — above  all  law  of  man — is  the  law  of  God.  It 
was  given  at  Sinai  thousands  of  years  ago.  It  received  new 
meaning  at  Calvary.  To  it  we  must  all  yet  come.  The  way 
may  be  hard,  and  in  the  strife  of  the  present  the  time  may 
seem  far  distant;  but  some  day  the  Messiah  will  reign  and 
man  to  man  the  world  over  shall  brothers  be  "for  a'  that.', 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Unless  an  adequate  volume  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  work, 
any  bibliography  of  the  history  of  the  Negro  Problem  in  the 
United  States  must  be  selective.  No  comprehensive  work  is 
in  existence.  Importance  attaches  to  Select  List  of  Refer- 
ences on  the  Negro  Question,  compiled  under  the  direction 
of  A.  P.  C.  Griffin,  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  1903; 
A  Select  Bibliography  of  the  Negro  American,  edited  by 
W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  Atlanta,  1905,  and  The  Negro  Problem: 
a  Bibliography,  edited  by  Vera  Sieg,  Free  Library  Commis- 
sion, Madison,  Wis.,  1908;  but  all  such  lists  have  to  be  sup- 
plemented for  more  recent  years.  Compilations  on  the  Aboli- 
tion Movement,  the  early  education  of  the  Negro,  and  the  lit- 
erary and  artistic  production  of  the  race  are  to  be  found 
respectively  in  Hart's  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Woodson's  The 
Education  of  the  Negro  prior  to  1861,  and  Brawley's  The 
Negro  in  Literature  and  Art,  and  the  Journal  of  Negro  His- 
tory is  constantly  suggestive  of  good  material. 

The  bibliography  that  follows  is  confined  to  the  main  ques- 
tion. First  of  all  are  given  general  references,  and  then  fol- 
lows a  list  of  individual  authors  and  books.  Finally,  there  are 
special  lists  on  topics  on  which  the  study  in  the  present  work 
is  most  intensive.  In  a  few  instances  books  that  are  super- 
ficial in  method  or  prejudiced  in  tone  have  been  mentioned  as 
it  has  seemed  necessary  to  try  to  consider  all  shades  of  opinion 
even  if  the  expression  was  not  always  adequate.  On  the  other 
hand,  not  every  source  mentioned  in  the  footnotes  is  included, 
for  sometimes  these  references  are  merely  incidental ;  and  espe- 
cially does  this  apply  in  the  case  of  lectures  or  magazine  articles, 
some  of  which  were  later  included  in  books.  Nor  is  there  any 
reference  to  works  of  fiction.  These  are  frequently  important, 
and  books  of  unusual  interest  are  sometimes ,  considered  in 
the  body  of  the  work;  but  in  such  a  study  as  the  present 
imaginative  literature  can  be  hardly  more  than  a  secondary  and 
a  debatable  source  of  information. 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  391 

I.    General  References 
(Mainly  in  Collections,  Sets,  or  Series) 

Statutes  at  Large,  being  a  Collection  of  all  the  Laws  of  Virginia  from 
the  first  session  of  the  Legislature,  in  the  year  1619,  by  William 
Waller  Hening.     Richmond,  1819-20. 

Laws  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  compiled  by  Henry  Potter,  J.  L. 
Taylor,  and  Bart.  Yancey.     Raleigh,  1821. 

The  Statutes  at  Large  of  South  Carolina,  edited  by  Thomas  Cooper. 
Columbia,  1837. 

The  Pro-Slavery  Argument  (as  maintained  by  the  most  distinguished 
writers  of  the  Southern  states).    Charleston,  1852. 

Files  of  such  publications  as  Niles's  Weekly  Register,  the  Genius  of 
Universal  Emancipation,  the  Liberator,  and  DeBow's  Commer- 
cial Review,  in  the  period  before  the  Civil  War ;  and  of  the  Crisis t 
the  Journal  of  Negro  History,  the  Negro  Year-Book,  the  Vir- 
ginia Magazine  of  History,  the  Review  of  Reviews,  the  Literary 
Digest,  the  Independent,  the  Outlook,  as  well  as  representative 
newspapers  North  and  South  and  weekly  Negro  newspapers  in 
later  years. 

Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political  Science 
(some  numbers  important  for  the  present  work  noted  below). 

Studies  in  History,  Economics,  and  Public  Law  edited  by  the  Faculty 
of  Political  Science  of  Columbia  University  (some  numbers  im- 
portant for  the  present  work  noted  below). 

Atlanta  University  Studies  of  Negro  Problems  (for  unusually  im- 
portant numbers  note  DuBois,  editor,  below,  also  Bigham). 

Occasional  Papers  of  the  American  Negro  Academy  (especially  note 
Cromwell  in  special  list  No.  1  below  and  Grimke  in  No.  3). 

Census  Reports  of  the  United  States ;  also  Publications  of  the  Bureau 
of  Education. 

Annual  Reports  of  the  General  Education  Board,  the  John  F.  Slater 
Fund,  the  Jeanes  Fund;  reports  and  pamphlets  issued  by  Amer- 
ican Missionary  Association,  American  Baptist  Home  Mission 
Society,  Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  etc. ;  catalogues  of  representa- 
tive educational  institutions;  and  a  volume  "From  Servitude  to 
Service"  (the  Old  South  lectures  on  representative  educational 
institutions  for  the  Negro),  Boston,  1905. 

Pamphlets  and  reports  of  National  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Colored  People,  the  National  Urban  League,  the  Southern 
Sociological  Congress,  the  University  Commission  on  Southern 
Race  Questions,  Hampton  Conference  reports,  1897-1907,  and 
Proceedings  of  the  National  Negro  Business  League,  annual 
since  1900. 

The  American  Nation:  A  History  from  Original  Sources  by  Asso- 
ciated Scholars,  edited  by  Albert  Bushnell  Hart.    2y  vols.    Harper 


392     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

&  Bros.,  New  York,  1907.     (Volumes  important  for  the  present 

work  specially  noted  below.) 
The  Chronicles  of  America.    A  Series  of  Historical  Narratives  edited 

by  Allen  Johnson.    50  vols.    Yale  University  Press,  New  Haven, 

1918 — .    (Volumes  important  for  the  present  work  specially  noted 

below.) 
The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation.     12  vols.     The  Southern 

Publication  Society.     Richmond,  Va.,  1909. 
Studies  in  Southern  History  and  Politics.    Columbia  University  Press, 

New  York,  1914. 
New  International  and  Americana  Encyclopedias  (especially  on  such 

topics  as  Africa,  the  Negro,  and  Negro  Education). 


II.     Individual  Works 
(Note  pamphlets  at  end  of  list;  also  special  lists  under  III  below.) 

Adams,  Alice  Dana:  The  Neglected  Period  of  Anti-Slavery  in 
America  (1808-1831),  RadcliiTe  College  Monograph  No.  14. 
Boston,  1908  (now  handled  by  Harvard  University  Press). 

Adams,  Henry:  History  of  the  United  States  from  1801  to  1817.  9 
vols.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1889-90. 

Alexander,  William  T. :  History  of  the  Colored  Race  in  America. 
Palmetto  Publishing  Co.,  New  Orleans,  1887. 

Armistead,  Wilson:  A  Tribute  for  the  Negro,  being  a  Vindication 
of  the  Moral,  Intellectual,  and  Religious  Capabilities  of  the  Col- 
ored Portion  of  Mankind,  with  particular  reference  to  the  Afri- 
can race,  illustrated  by  numerous  biographical  sketches,  facts, 
anecdotes,  etc.,  and  many  superior  portraits  and  engravings. 
Manchester,  1848. 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard:  Following  the  Color  Line.  Doubleday,  Page 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1908. 

Ballagh,  James  Curtis:     A  History  of  Slavery  in  Virginia.     Johns 
Hopkins  Studies,  extra  volume  24.     Baltimore,  1902. 
White  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  Virginia.    Johns  Hopkins  Studies, 
Thirteenth  Series,  Nos.  6  and  7.     Baltimore,  1895. 

Bassett,  John  Spencer:  Anti-Slavery  Leaders  of  North  Carolina. 
Sixth  Series,  No.  6.  Baltimore,  1898. 
Slavery  and  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  North  Carolina.  Johns 
Hopkins  Studies,  Fourteenth  Series,  Nos.  4  and  5.  Baltimore, 
1896. 
Slavery  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  Johns  Hopkins  Studies, 
XIV:  179;  XVII:  323. 

Bigham,  John  Alvin  (editor)  :  Select  Discussions  of  Race  Problems, 
No.  20,  of  Atlanta  University  Publications.     Atlanta,  1916. 

Birney,  William:  James  G.  Birney  and  His  Times.  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  New  York,  1890, 


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bus, O.,  1861. 

Blyden,  Edward  W. :  Christianity,  Islam,  and  the  Negro  Race.  Lon- 
don, 1887. 

Bogart,  Ernest  Ludlow :  The  Economic  History  of  the  United  States. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  New  York,  1918  edition. 

Bourne,  Edward  Gaylord:  Spain  in  America,  1450-1580.  Vol.  3  of 
American  Nation  Series. 

Brackett,  Jeffrey  Richardson:  The  Negro  in  Maryland:  A  Study  of 
the  Institution  of  Slavery.  Johns  Hopkins  Studies,  extra  volume 
6.     Baltimore,  1889. 

Bradford,  Sarah  H. :  Harriet,  the  Moses  of  Her  People.  New  York, 
1886. 

Brawley,  Benjamin:    A  Short  History  of  the  American  Negro.    The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1913,  revised  1919. 
History  of  Morehouse  College.    Atlanta,  1917. 
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Your  Negro  Neighbor   (in  Our  National  Problems  series).     The 

Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1918. 
Africa  and  the  War.     Duffield  &  Co.,  New  York,  1918. 
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Brawley,  Edward  M. :  The  Negro  Baptist  Pulpit.  American  Baptist 
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Bruce,  Philip  Alexander:  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the 
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Cable,  George  Washington:  The  Negro  Question.  Charles  Scrib- 
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Calhoun,  William  Patrick:  The  Caucasian  and  the  Negro  in  the 
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Chamberlain,  D.  H. :  Present  Phases  of  Our  So-Called  Negro  Prob- 
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Cheyney,  Edward  Potts:  European  Background  of  American  His- 
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Child,  Lydia  Maria:     An  Appeal  in  Favor  of  That  Class  of  Amer- 
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Clayton,  V.  V. :  White  and  Black  under  the  Old  Regime.  Milwau- 
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Clowes,  W.  Laird:  Black  America:  A  Study  of  the  Ex-Slave  and 
His  Late  Master.    Cassell  &  Co.,  London,  1891. 

Coffin,  Joshua:  An  Account  of  Some  of  the  Principal  Slave  Insur- 
rections, and  others,  which  have  occurred,  or  been  attempted,  in 


394     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

the  United  States  and  elsewhere,  during  the  last  two  centuries, 
with  various  remarks.  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  New 
York,  i860. 

Collins,  Winfield  H. :  The  Domestic  Slave  Trade  of  the  Southern 
States.    Broadway  Publishing  Co.,  New  York,  1904. 

Coman,  Katherine:     The  Industrial   History  of  the  United   States. 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1918  edition. 
The  Negro  as  a  Peasant  Farmer.     American  Statistical  Associa- 
tion Publications,  1904:39. 

Commons,  John  R. :  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America.  The  Mac- 
millan Co.,  1907. 

Coolidge,  Archibald  Cary:  The  United  States  as  a  World  Power. 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1918. 

Cooper,  Anna  Julia:  A  Voice  from  the  South,  by  a  black  woman 
of  the  South.     Xenia,  O.,  1892. 

Corey,  Charles  H. :  A  History  of  the  Richmond  Theological  Sem- 
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Cornish,  Samuel  E.,  and  Wright,  T.  S. :  The  Colonization  Scheme 
Considered  in  Its  Rejection  by  the  Colored  People.  Newark, 
1840. 

Cromwell,  John  W. :  The  Negro  in  American  History.  The  Amer- 
ican Negro  Academy,  Washington,  1914. 

Culp,  Daniel  W.  (editor)  :  Twentieth  Century  Negro  Literature. 
Nichols  &  Co.,  Toronto,  1902. 

Cutler,  James  E. :  Lynch  Law,  an  Investigation  into  the  History  of 
Lynching  in  the  United  States.  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  New 
York,  1905. 

Daniels,  John:  In  Freedom's  Birthplace:  A  Study  of  the  Boston 
Negroes.     Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston  and  New  York,  1914. 

Dewey,  Davis  Rich:  National  Problems,  1885-1897.  Vol.  24  in 
American  Nation  Series. 

Dill,  Augustus  Granville.  See  DuBois,  editor  Atlanta  University 
Publications. 

Dodd,  William  E. :    The  Cotton  Kingdom.    Vol.  27  of  Chronicles  of 
America. 
Expansion  and  Conflict.    Vol.  3  of  Riverside  History  of  the  United 
States.     Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  19 15. 

Dow,  Lorenzo  ("Cosmopolite,  a  Listener")  :  A  Cry  from  the  Wil- 
derness! A  Voice  from  the  East,  A  Reply  from  the  West — 
Trouble  in  the  North,  Exemplifying  in  the  South.  Intended  as  a 
timely  and  solemn  warning  to  the  People  of  the  United  States. 
Printed  for  the  Purchaser  and  the  Public.     United  States,  1830. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  Burghardt :  Suppression  of  the  African  Slave-Trade. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  New  York,  1896  (now  handled  by  Har- 
vard University  Press). 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  395 

DuBois,  W.  E.  Burghardt:    The  Philadelphia  Negro.     University  of 
Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  1899. 
The  Souls  of  Black  Folk.    A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1903. 
The  Negro   in   the    South    (Booker   T.   Washington,   co-author). 

George  W.  Jacobs  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1907. 
John  Brown  (in  American  Crisis  Biographies).    George  W.  Jacobs 

&  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1909. 
The  Negro  (in  Home  University  Library  Series).     Henry  Holt  & 

Co.,  New  York,  191 5. 
Darkwater:    Voices   from  within  the  Veil.     Harcourt,   Brace   & 

Co.,  New  York,  1920. 
(Editor  Atlanta  University  Publications). 
The  Negro  Church,  No.  8. 

The  Health  and  Physique  of  the  Negro  American,  No.  II. 
Economic  Co-operation  among  Negro  Americans,  No.  12. 
The  Negro  American  Family,  No.  13. 

Efforts  for  Social  Betterment  among  Negro  Americans,  No.  14. 
The  College-Bred   Negro   American,   No.    15.      (A.    G.    Dill,   co- 
editor.) 
The  Negro  American  Artisan,  No.  17.     (A.  G.  Dill,  co-editor.) 
Morals  and  Manners  among  Negro  Americans,  No.  18.     (A.  G. 
Dill,  co-editor.) 
Dunbar,  Alice  Ruth  Moore :    Masterpieces  of  Negro  Eloquence.    The 

Bookery  Publishing  Co.,  New  York,  1914. 
Dunbar,  Paul  Laurence :    Complete  Poems.    Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New 

York,  1913. 
Dunning,   William   Archibald:     Reconstruction,   Political    and   Eco- 
nomic.    Vol.  22  of  American  Nation  Series. 
Earnest,  Joseph  B.,  Jr. :    The  Religious  Development  of  the  Negro 

in  Virginia  (Ph.D.  thesis,  Virginia).     Charlottesville,  1914. 
Eckenrode,    Hamilton   James:     The    Political    History   of   Virginia 
during  the   Reconstruction.     Johns   Hopkins   Studies.     Twenty- 
second  Series,  Nos.  6,  7,  and  8.    Baltimore,  1904. 
Ellis,  George  W. :    Negro  Culture  in  West  Africa.    The  Neale  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  New  York,  1914. 
Ellwood,  Charles  A. :    Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems.  Amer- 
ican Book  Co.,  New  York,  1910. 
Elwang,  William  W. :    The  Negroes  of  Columbia,  Mo.  (A.M.  thesis, 

Missouri),  1904. 
Epstein,  Abraham:  The  Negro  Migrant  in  Pittsburgh  (in  publica- 
tions of  School  of  Economics  of  the  University  of  Pittsburgh). 
1918. 
Evans,  Maurice  S. :  Black  and  White  in  the  Southern  States :  A 
Study  of  the  Race  Problem  in  the  United  States  from  a  South 
African  Point  of  View.    Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London,  1915. 


396     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Ferris,  William  Henry:    The  African  Abroad.    2  vols.    New  Haven, 

IQJ3- 

Fleming,   Walter  L. :     Documentary   History   of   Reconstruction.     2 
vols.    Arthur  H.  Clark  Co.,  Cleveland,  O.,  1906. 
The  Sequel  of  Appomattox.    Vol.  32  of  Chronicles  of  America. 

Fletcher,  Frank  H. :  Negro  Exodus.  Report  of  agent  appointed  by 
the  St.  Louis  Commission  to  visit  Kansas  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  information  in  regard  to  colored  emigration.  No 
imprint. 

Furman,  Richard :  Exposition  of  the  Views  of  the  Baptists  Relative 
to  the  Colored  Population  in  the  United  States,  in  a  communica- 
tion to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina.  Second  edition,  Charles- 
ton, 1833.  (Letter  bears  original  date  December  24,  1822;  Fur- 
man  was  president  of  State  Baptist  Convention.) 

Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  Garrison,  Francis  Jackson:  William 
Lloyd  Garrison;  Story  of  His  Life  Told  by  His  Children.  4 
vols.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1894. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd:  Thoughts  on  African  Colonization:  or 
An  Impartial  Exhibition  of  the  Doctrines,  Principles,  and  Pur- 
poses of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  together  with  the 
Resolutions,  Addresses,  and  Remonstrances  of  the  Free  People 
of  Color.     Boston,  1832. 

Gayarre,  Charles  E.  A. :  History  of  Louisiana.  4  vols.  New  Or- 
leans, 1885  edition. 

Grady,  Henry  W. :  The  New  South  and  Other  Addresses,  with 
biography,  etc.,  by  Edna  H.  L.  Turpin.  Maynard,  Merrill  &  Co., 
New  York,  1904. 

Graham,  Stephen:  The  Soul  of  John  Brown.  The  Macmillan  Co., 
New  York,  1920. 

Hallowell,  Richard  P. :  Why  the  Negro  was  Enfranchised — Negro 
Suffrage  Justified.  Boston,  1903.  (Reprint  of  two  letters  in  the 
Boston  Herald,  March  11  and  26,  1903.) 

Hammond,  Lily  Hardy :  In  Black  and  White :  An  Interpretation  of 
Southern  Life.    Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York,  1914. 

Harris,  Norman  Dwight:  Intervention  and  Colonization  in  Africa. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1914. 

Hart,  Albert  Bushnell :     National  Ideals  Historically  Traced.     Vol. 
26  in  American  Nation  Series. 
Slavery  and  Abolition.    Vol.  16  in  American  Nation  Series. 
The  Southern  South.    D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1910. 

Hartshorn,  W.  N,  and  Penniman,  George  W. :  An  Era  of  Progress 
and  Promise,  1863-1910.  The  Priscilla  Publishing  Co.,  Boston, 
1910. 

Haworth,  Paul  Leland:  America  in  Ferment.  Bobbs-Merrill  Co., 
Indianapolis,  1915. 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  397 

Haynes,  George  E. :  The  Negro  at  Work  in  New  York  City.  Vol. 
49,  No.  3,  of  Columbia  Studies,  1912. 

Helper,  Hinton  Rowan:  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South:  How 
to  Meet  It.    New  York,  1857. 

Hickok,  Charles  T. :  The  Negro  in  Ohio,  1802-1870.  (Western 
Reserve  thesis.)     Cleveland,  1896. 

Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth :  Army  Life  in  a  Black  Regiment, 
Boston,  1870.     (Latest  edition,  Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  1900.) 

Hoffman,  Frederick  L. :  Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  Amer- 
ican Negro.  American  Economics  Association  Publications,  XI, 
Nos.  1-3,  1896. 

Hodge,  Frederick  W.  (editor)  :  Spanish  Explorers  in  the  Southern 
United  States,  1528- 1543  (in  Original  Narratives  of  Early  Amer- 
ican History),  esp.  The  Narrative  of  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeqa  de 
Vaca.    Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1907. 

Holland,  Edwin  C. :  A  Refutation  of  the  Calumnies  circulated 
against  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  respecting  the  insti- 
tution and  existence  of  slavery  among  them;  to  which  is  added 
a  minute  and  particular  account  of  the  actual  condition  and  state 
of  their  Negro  Population,  together  with  Historical  Notices  of 
all  the  Insurrections  that  have  taken  place  since  the  settlement 
of  the  country.     By  a  South  Carolinian.    Charleston,  1822. 

Horsemanden,  Daniel  (Judge)  :  A  Journal  of  the  Proceedings  in 
the  Detection  of  the  Conspiracy  Formed  by  Some  White  People, 
in  conjunction  with  Negro  and  Other  Slaves,  for  Burning  the 
City  of  New  York  in  America,  and  Murdering  the  Inhabitants. 
New  York,  1744. 

Hosmer,  James  K. :  The  History  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

Hurd,  John  C. :  The  Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage.  2  vols.  Boston, 
1858-1862. 

Jay,  William :  Inquiry  into  the  Character  and  Tendency  of  the  Amer- 
ican Colonization  and  Anti-Slavery  Societies.     New  York,  1835. 

Jefferson,  Thomas :  Writings,  issued  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Thomas  Jefferson  Memorial  Association.  20  vols.  Washington, 
1903. 

Jervey,  Theodore  D. :  Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  His  Times.  The  Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York,  1909. 

Johnson,  Allen:  Union  and  Democracy.  Vol.  2  of  Riverside  Hfistory 
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Johnson,  James  W. :     Autobiography  of  an  Ex-Colored  Man   (pub- 
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Hayti.     Four  articles  reprinted  from  the  Nation,  New  York,  1920. 

Johnston,  Sir  Harry  Hamilton :  The  Negro  in  the  New  World.  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  19 10. 


398     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Kelsey,  Carl:  The  Negro  Farmer  (Ph.D.  thesis,  Pennsylvania). 
Jennings  &  Pye,  Chicago,  1903. 

Kemble,  Frances  A. :  Journal  of  Residence  on  a  Georgia  Plantation, 
1838-1839.     Harper  &  Bros.,  1863. 

Kerlin,  Robert  T.  (editor)  :  The  Voice  of  the  Negro,  1919.  E.  P. 
Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1920. 

Kimball,  John  C. :  Connecticut's  Canterbury  Tale ;  Its  Heroine  Pru- 
dence Crandall,  and  Its  Moral  for  To-Day.  Hartford,  Conn. 
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Krehbiel,  Henry  E. :  Afro-American  Folk-Songs.  G.  Schirmer,  New 
York  and  London,  19 14. 

Lauber,  Almon  Wheeler:  Indian  Slavery  in  Colonial  Times  within 
the  Present  Limits  of  the  United  States.  Vol.  54,  No.  3,  of 
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Livermore,  George :  An  Historical  Research  Respecting  the  Opin- 
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Citizens,  and  as  Soldiers.    Boston,  1863. 

Locke,  Mary  Stoughton:  Anti-Slavery  in  America  from  the  Intro- 
duction of  African  Slaves  to  the  Prohibition  of  the  Slave-Trade, 
1619-1808.  Radcliffe  College  Monograph  No.  II.  Boston,  1901 
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Lonn,  Ella:  Reconstruction  in  Louisiana.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
New  York,  1919. 

Lugard,  Lady  (Flora  L.  Shaw)  :  A  Tropical  Dependency.  James 
Nisbet  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  London,  1906. 

Lynch,  John  R. :  The  Facts  of  Reconstruction :  The  Neale  Publish- 
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McConnell,  John  Preston :  Negroes  and  Their  Treatment  in  Virginia 
from  1865  to  1867  (Ph.D.  thesis,  Virginia,  1905).  Printed  by 
B.  D.  Smith  &  Bros.,  Pulaski,  Va.,  1910. 

MacCorkle,  William  A. :  Some  Southern  Questions.  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  New  York,  1908. 

McCormac,  E.  I. :  White  Servitude  in  Maryland.  Johns  Hopkins 
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McDougall,  Marion  Gleason:  Fugitive  Slaves,  1619-1865.  Fay 
House  (Radcliffe  College)  Monograph,  No.  3.  Boston,  1891 
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McLaughlin,  Andrew  Cunningham:  The  Confederation  and  the 
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McMaster,  John  Bach;  A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States, 
from  the  Revolution  to  the  Civil  War.  8  vols.  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  New  York,  1883-1913. 

Macy,  Jesse:  The  Anti-Slavery  Crusade.  Vol.  28  in  Chronicles  of 
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Marsh,  J.  B.  T. :  The  Story  of  the  Jubilee  Singers,  with  their  songs. 
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"V        York,  19 1 4. 

Appeal  to  Conscience   (in  Our  National  Problems  Series).     The 

Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1913. 
Moore,  G.  H. :     Historical  Notes  on  the  Employment  of  Negroes  in 

the  American  Army  of  the  Revolution.    New  York,  1862. 
Morgan,  Thomas  J. :    Reminiscences  of  Service  with  Colored  Troops 

in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  1863-65.    Providence,  1885. 
Moton,   Robert  Russa :     Finding  a  Way  Out :    An  Autobiography. 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  N.  Y.,  1920. 
Murphy,  Edgar  Gardner:     The   Basis  of   Ascendency.     Longmans, 

Green  &  Co.,  London,  1909. 
Murray,  Freeman  H.  M. :    Emancipation  and  the  Freed  in  American 

Sculpture.     Published  by  the   author,   1733   Seventh   St.,   N.W., 

Washington,  1916. 
Odum,  Howard  W. :    Social  and  Mental  Traits  of  the  Negro.    Colum- 
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Palmer,  B.  M.    (with  W.  T.  Leacock)  :     The  Rights  of  the  South 

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Penniman,  George^  W.     See  Hartshorn,  W.  N. 
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Plantation  and  Frontier.    Vols.  I  and  II  of  Documentary  History 

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Pike,  G.  D. :    The  Jubilee  Singers  and  Their  Campaign  for  $20,000. 

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Pike,  J.  S. :    The  Prostrate  State :    South  Carolina  under  Negro  Gov- 
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Pipkin,  James  Jefferson:    The  Negro  in  Revelation,  in  History,  and 

in  Citizenship.    N.  D.  Thompson  Publishing  Co.,  St.  Louis,  1902. 
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400     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

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Russell,  John  H. :  The  Free  Negro  in  Virginia,  1619-1865.  Johns 
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Schurz,  Carl :  Speeches,  Correspondence,  and  Political  Papers,  se- 
lected and  edited  by  Frederic  Bancroft.  6  vols.  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  New  York  and  London,  19 13. 

Scott,  Emmett  J.:  Negro  Migration  during  the  War  (in  Prelim- 
inary Economic  Studies  of  the  War — Carnegie  Endowment  for 
International  Peace:  Division  of  Economics  and  History).  Ox- 
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Official  History  of  the  American  Negro  in  the  World  War.  Wash- 
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Seligman,  Herbert  J. :  The  Negro  Faces  America.  Harper  Bros., 
New  York,  1920. 

Shaler,  Nathaniel  Southgate:  The  Neighbor:  the  Natural  History 
of  Human  Contacts.    Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1904. 

Siebert,  Wilbur  H. :  The  Underground  Railroad  from  Slavery  to 
Freedom.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1898. 

Sinclair,  William  A.:  The  Aftermath  of  Slavery.  Small,  Maynard 
&  Co.,  Boston,  1905. 

Smith,  Justin  H. :  The  War  with  Mexico.  2  vols.  The  Macmillan 
Co.,  New  York,  1919. 

Smith,  Theodore  Clarke :  Parties  and  Slavery.  Vol.  18  of  Amer- 
ican Nation  Series. 

Smith,  T.  W. :  The  Slave  in  Canada.  Vol.  10  in  Collections  of  the 
Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society.     Halifax,  N.  S.,  1889. 

Stephenson,  Gilbert  Thomas:  Race  Distinctions  in  American  Law. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1910. 

Steward,  T.  G. :  The  Haitian  Revolution,  1791-1804.  Thomas  Y. 
Crowell  Co.,  New  York,  1914. 

Stoddard,  Lothrop :  The  Rising  Tide  of  Color  against  White  World- 
Supremacy,  with  an  Introduction  by  Madison  Grant.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons.    New  York,  1920. 

Stone,  Alfred  H. :  Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem.  Double- 
day,  Page  &  Co.,  New  York,  1908. 

Storey,   Moorfield:     The   Negro   Question.     An   Address   delivered 
before  the  Wisconsin  Bar  Association.     Boston,  1918. 
Problems  of  To-Day.     Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1920. 

Thompson,  Holland:  The  New  South.  Vol.  42  in  Chronicles  of 
America. 

Tillinghast,  Joseph  Alexander:     The  Negro  in  Africa  and  America. 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  401 

Publications  of  American  Economics  Association,  Series  3,  Vol.  3, 
No.  2.    New  York,  1902. 
Toombs,  Robert :    Speech  on  The  Crisis,  delivered  before  the  Georgia 

Legislature,  Dec.  7,  i860.    Washington,  i860. 
Tucker,  St.  George :    A  Dissertation  on  Slavery,  with  a  Proposal  for 
the  Gradual  Abolition  of  it  in  the  State  of  Virginia.     Philadel- 
phia, 1796. 
Turner,  Frederick  Jackson:     The  Rise  of  the  New  West.     Vol.  14 

in  American  Nation  Series. 
Turner,  Edward  Raymond:     The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania,  1639-1861 
(Justin  Winsor  Prize  of  American  Historical  Association,  1910). 
Washington,  191 1. 
Washington,  Booker  T. :    The  Future  of  the  American  Negro.   Small, 
Maynard  &  Co.,  Boston,  1899. 
The  Story  of  My  Life  and  Work.    Nichols  &  Co.,  Naperville,  111., 

1900. 
Up  from  Slavery:    An  Autobiography.     Doubleday,  Page  &  Co., 

New  York,  1901. 
Character  Building.     Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 
Working  with  the  Hands.     Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  New  York, 

1904. 
Putting  the  Most  into  Life.     Crowell  &  Co.,  New  York,  1906. 
Frederick  Douglass  (in  American  Crisis  Biographies).    George  W. 

Jacobs  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1906. 
The  Negro  in  the  South   (with  W.  E.  B.  DuBois).     George  W. 

Jacobs  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1907. 
The  Negro  in  Business.    Hertel,  Jenkins  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1907. 
The  Story  of  the  Negro.     2  vols.     Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  New 

York,  1909. 
My  Larger  Education.    Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  N.  Y., 

1911. 
The  Man  Farthest  Down  (with  Robert  Emory  Park).    Doubleday, 
Page  &  Co.,  Garden  City,  N.  Y.,  1912. 
Weale,  B.  L.  Putnam:    The  Conflict  of  Color.     The  Macmillan  Co., 

New  York,  1910. 
Weatherf ord,  W.  D. :     Present  Forces  in  Negro  Progress.    Associa- 
tion Press,  New  York,  1912. 
Weld,  Theodore  Dwight:     American   Slavery  as  It  Is:    Testimony 
of  a   Thousand  Witnesses.     Published  by  the   American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  New  York,  1839. 
Wiener,  Leo:    Africa  and  the  Discovery  of  America,  Vol.  I.     Innes 

&  Sons,  Philadelphia,  1920. 
Williams,  George  Washington :    History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  Amer- 
ica from  1619  to  1880.    2  vols.    G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York, 
1883. 
Wise,  John  S. :    The  End  of  an  Era.    Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  1899. 


402     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Woodson,  Carter  G. :     The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York,  191 5. 
A   Century  of   Negro  Migration.     Association   for   the   Study   of 

Negro  Life  and  History,  Washington,  1918. 
Woolf,   Leonard:     Empire  and  Commerce   in  Africa:    A   Study  in 

Economic  Imperialism.    London,  1920.    The  Macmillan  Co.,  New 

York. 
Wright,  Richard  R. :     Negro  Companions  of  the  Spanish  Explorers. 

(Reprinted  from  the   American  Anthropologist,  Vol.   4,   April- 
June,  1902.) 
Wright,  Richard  R.,  Jr.:     The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania:    A  Study  in 

Economic   History.      (Ph.D.   thesis,   Pennsylvania.)      A.    M.   E. 

Book  Concern,  Philadelphia. 
Wright,  T.  S.     See  Cornish,  Samuel  E. 
Zabriskie,  Luther  K. :     The  Virgin  Islands  of  the  United  States  of 

America.     G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York,  1918. 


An  Address  to  the  People  of  the  United  States,  adopted  at  a  Confer- 
ence of  Colored  Citizens,  held  at  Columbia,  S.  C,  July  20  and 
21,  1876.    Republican  Printing  Co.,  Columbia,  S.  C,  1876. 

Paper  (letter  published  in  a  Washington  paper)  submitted  in  con- 
nection with  the  Debate  in  the  United  States  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, July  15th  and  18th,  1776,  on  the  Massacre  of  Six 
Colored  Citizens  at  Hamburg,  S.  C,  July  4,  1876. 

Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Colored  Men  of  the 
United  States,  held  in  the  State  Capitol  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  May 
6,  7,  8,  and  9,  1879.    Washington,  D.  C,  1879. 

Story  of  the  Riot.  Persecution  of  Negroes  by  roughs  and  policemen 
in  the  City  of  New  York,  August,  1900.  Statement  and  Proofs 
written  and  compiled  by  Frank  Moss  and  issued  by  the  Citizens' 
Protective  League.    New  York,  1900. 

The  Voice  of  the  Carpet  Bagger.  Reconstruction  Review  No.  1,  pub- 
lished by  the  Anti-Lynching  Bureau.     Chicago,  190 1. 

III.     Special  Lists 

1.  On  Chapter  II,  Section  3;  Chapter  III,  Section  5;  Chapter 
VIII  and  Chapter  XI,  the  general  topic  being  the  social 
progress  of  the  Negro  before  i860.  Titles  are  mainly  in 
the  order  of  appearance  of  works. 

Mather,  Cotton:    Rules  for  the  Society  of  Negroes,  1693.    Reprinted 
by  George  H.  Moore,  Lenox  Library,  New  York,  1888. 
The  Negro  Christianized.    An  Essay  to  excite  and  assist  that  good 
work,  the  instruction  of  Negro-servants  in  Christianity.    Boston, 
1706. 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  403 

Allen,  Richard.  The  Life,  Experience  and  Gospel  Labors  of  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Richard  Allen,  written  by  himself.     Philadelphia,  1793. 

Hall,  Prince.  A  Charge  delivered  to  the  African  Lodge,  June  24, 
1797,  at  Menotomy,  by  the  Right  Worshipful  Prince  Hall.  (Bos- 
ton)   1797. 

To  the  Free  Africans  and  Other  Free  People  of  Color  in  the  United 
States.     (Broadside)   Philadelphia,  1797. 

Walker,  David:  Appeal,  in  four  articles,  together  with  a  Preamble 
to  the  Colored  Citizens  of  the  World.     Boston,  1829. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd:     An  Address   delivered  before  the  Free 
People  of   Color  in  Philadelphia,   New  York,   and  other  cities, 
during  the  month  of  June,  1831.    Boston,  1831. 
Thoughts  on  African  Colonization  (see  list  above). 

Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  First  Annual  Convention  of  the 
People  of  Color,  held  by  adjournments  in  the  City  of  Philadel- 
phia, from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  of  June,  inclusive,  183 1. 
Philadelphia,  183 1. 

College  for  Colored  Youth.  An  Account  of  the  New  Haven  City 
Meeting  and  Resolutions  with  Recommendations  of  the  College, 
and  Strictures  upon  the  Doings  of  New  Haven.    New  York,  183 1. 

On  the  Condition  of  the  Free  People  of  Color  in  the  United  States. 
New  York,  1839.     (The  Anti-Slavery  Examiner,  No.  13.) 

Condition  of  the  People  of  Color  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  with  interest- 
ing anecdotes.    Boston,  1839. 

Armistead,  Wilson:     Memoir  of  Paul  Cuffe.    London,  1840. 

Wilson,  Joseph:  Sketches  of  the  Higher  Classes  of  Colored  Society 
in  Philadelphia.     Philadelphia,  1841. 

National  Convention  of  Colored  Men  and  Their  Friends.  Troy, 
N.  Y.,  1847. 

Garnet,  Henry  Highland:  The  Past  and  Present  Condition  and  the 
Destiny  of  the  Colored  Race.     Troy,  1848. 

Delany,  Martin  R. :  The  Condition,  Elevation,  Emigration,  and  Des- 
tiny of  the  Colored  People  of  the  United  States,  Politically  Con- 
sidered.    Philadelphia,  1852. 

Cincinnati  Convention  of  Colored  Freedmen  of  Ohio.  Proceedings, 
Jan.  14-19,  1852.     Cincinnati,  1852. 

Proceedings  of  the  Colored  National  Convention,  held  in  Rochester, 
July  6,  7,  and  8,  1853.    Rochester,  1853. 

Cleveland  National  Emigration  Convention  of  Colored  People.  Pro- 
ceedings, Aug.  22-24,  1854.     Pittsburg,  1854. 

Nell,  William  C. :  The  Colored  Patriots  of  the  American  Revolution, 
with  sketches  of  several  Distinguished  Colored  Persons :  to  which 
is  added  a  brief  survey  of  the  Condition  and  Prospects  of  Col- 
ored Americans,  with  an  Introduction  by  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe. 
Boston,  1855. 

Stevens,  Charles  E. :     Anthony  Burns,  a  History.     Boston,  1856. 


404     SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Catto,  William  T. :  A  Semi-Centenary  Discourse,  delivered  in  the 
First  African  Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia,  with  a  History 
of  the  church  from  its  first  organization,  including  a  brief  notice 
of  Rev.  John  Gloucester,  its  first  pastor.     Philadelphia,  1857. 

Bacon,  Benjamin  C. :  Statistics  of  the  Colored  People  of  Philadel- 
phia. Philadelphia,  1856.  Second  edition,  with  statistics  of 
crime,  Philadelphia,  1857. 

Condition  of  the  Free  Colored  People  of  the  United  States,  by  James 
Freeman  Clarke,  in  Christian  Examiner,  March,  1859,  246-265. 
Reprinted  as  pamphlet  by  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  New 
York,   1859. 

Brown,  William  Wells:    Clotel,  or  The  President's  Daughter  (a  nar- 
rative of  slave  life  in  the  United  States).     London,  1853. 
The  Escape;  or  A  Leap  for  Freedom,  a  Drama  in  five  acts.     Bos- 
ton, 1858. 
The  Black  Man,  His  Antecedents,  His  Genius,  and  His  Achieve- 
ments.    New  York,  1863. 
The   Rising  Son;   or  The   Antecedents   and  Advancement  of  the 
Colored  Race.     Boston,  1874. 

To  Thomas  J.  Gantt,  Esq.  (Broadside),  Charleston,  1861. 

Douglass,  William:  Annals  of  St.  Thomas's  First  African  Church. 
Philadelphia,  1862. 

Proceedings  of  the  National  Convention  of  Colored  Men,  held  in  the 
city  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  October  4,  5,  6,  and  7,  1864,  with  the 
Bill  of  Wrongs  and  Rights  and  the  Address  to  the  American 
People.     Boston,  1864. 

The  Budget,  containing  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  General  Officers 
of  the  African  M.  E.  Church  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
edited  by  Benjamin  W.  Arnett.  Xenia,  O.,  1881.  Same  for 
later  years. 

Simms,  James  M. :  The  First  Colored  Baptist  Church  in  North 
America.    Printed  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1888. 

Upton,  William  H. :  Negro  Masonry,  being  a  Critical  Examination 
of  objections  to  the  legitimacy  of  the  Masonry  existing  among 
the  Negroes  of  America.    Cambridge,  1899 ;  second  edition,  1902. 

Brooks,  Charles  H. :  The  Official  History  and  Manual  of  the  Grand 
United  Order  of  Odd  Fellows  in  America.     Philadelphia,  1902. 

Cromwell,  John  W. :  The  Early  Convention  Movement.  Occasional 
Paper  No.  9  of  American  Negro  Academy,  Washington,  D.  C, 
1904. 

Brooks,  Walter  H. :    The  Silver  Bluff  Church,  Washington,  1910. 

Crawford,  George  W. :  Prince  Hall  and  His  Followers.  New  Haven, 
1915. 

Wright,  Richard  R.,  Jr.  (Editor-in-Chief)  :  Centennial  Encyclo- 
paedia of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  A.  M.  E. 
Book  Concern,  Philadelphia,  1916. 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  405 

Also  note  narratives  or  autobiographies  of  Frederick  Douglass,  So- 
journer Truth,  Samuel  Ringgold  Ward,  Solomon  Northrup,  Luns- 
ford  Lane,  etc.;  the  poems  of  Phillis  Wheatley  (first  edition, 
London,  1773),  and  George  M.  Horton;  Williams's  History  for 
study  of  some  more  prominent  characters;  Woodson's  bibliog- 
raphy for  the  special  subject  of  education;  and  periodical  liter- 
ature, especially  the  articles  remarked  in  Chapter  XI  in  con- 
nection with  the  free  people  of  color  in  Louisiana. 

2.     On  Chapter  V    (Indian  and  Negro) 

A  standard  work  on  the  Second  Seminole  War  is  The  Origin, 
Progress,  and  Conclusion  of  the  Florida  War,  by  John  T.  Sprague, 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1848;  but  also  important  as  touching 
upon  the  topics  of  the  chapter  are  The  Exiles  of  Florida,  by  Joshua 
R.  Giddings,  Columbus,  Ohio,  1858,  and  a  speech  by  Giddings  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  February  9,  1841.  Note  also  House  Docu- 
ment No.  128  of  the  1st  session  of  the  20th  Congress,  and  Document 
327  of  the  2nd  session  of  the  25th  Congress.  The  Aboriginal  Races 
of  North  America,  by  Samuel  G.  Drake,  fifteenth  edition,  New  York, 
1880,  is  interesting  and  suggestive  though  formless;  and  McMaster 
in  different  chapters  gives  careful  brief  accounts  of  the  general 
course  of  the  Indian  wars. 

3.     On  Chapter  VII  (Insurrections) 

(For  insurrections  before  that  of  Denmark  Vesey  note  especially 
Coffin,  Holland,  and  Horsemanden  above.  On  Gabriel's  Insurrec- 
tion see  article  by  Higginson  (Atlantic,  X.  337),  afterwards  in- 
cluded in  Travellers  and  Outlaws.) 

Denmark  Vesey 

1.  An  Official  Report  of  the  Trials  of  Sundry  Negroes,  charged 
with  an  attempt  to  raise  an  Insurrection  in  the  State  of  South  Caro- 
lina. By  Lionel  H.  Kennedy  and  Thomas  Parker  (members  of  the 
Charleston  Bar  and  the  Presiding  Magistrates  of  the  Court). 
Charleston,  1822. 

2.  An  Account  of  the  Late  Intended  Insurrection  among  a  Por- 
tion of  the  Black  of  this  City.  Published  by  the  Authority  of  the 
Corporation  of  Charleston.  Charleston,  1822  (reprinted  Boston,  1822, 
and  again  in  Boston  and  Charleston). 

The  above  accounts,  now  exceedingly  rare,  are  the  real  sources  of 
all  later  study  of  Vesey's  insurrection.  The  two  accounts  are  some- 
times identical;  thus  the  list  of  those  executed  or  banished  is  the 
same.  The  first  has  a  good  introduction.  The  second  was  written 
by  James  Hamilton,  Intendant  of  Charleston. 


406    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

3.  Letter  of  Governor  William  Bennett,  dated  August  10,  1822. 
(This  was  evidently  a  circular  letter  to  the  press.  References  are  to 
Lundy's  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  II,  42,  Ninth  month, 
1822,  and  there  are  reviews  in  the  following  issues,  pages  81,  131, 
and  142.  Higginson  notes  letter  as  also  in  Columbian  Sentinel, 
August  31,  1822;  Connecticut  Courant,  September  3,  1822;  and 
Worcester  Spy,  September  18,  1822.) 

Three  secondary  accounts  in  later  years  are  important: 

1.  Article  on  Denmark  Vesey  by  Higginson  {Atlantic,  VII.  728) 
included  in  Travellers  and  Outlaws:  Episodes  in  American  History. 
Lee  and  Shepard,  Boston,  1889. 

2.  Right  on  the  Scaffold,  or  the  Martyrs  of  1822,  by  Archibald  H. 
Grimke.  No.  7  of  the  Papers  of  the  American  Negro  Academy, 
Washington. 

3.  Book  I,  Chapter  XII,  "Denmark  Vesey's  Insurrection,"  in 
Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  His  Times,  by  Theodore  D.  Jervey,  The  Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York,  1909. 

Various  pamphlets  were  written  immediately  after  the  insurrec- 
tion not  so  much  to  give  detailed  accounts  as  to  discuss  the  general 
problem  of  the  Negro  and  the  reaction  of  the  white  citizens  of 
Charleston  to  the  event.    Of  these  we  may  note  the  following: 

1.  Holland,  Edwin  C. :  A  Refutation  of  the  Calumnies  Circulated 
against  the  Southern  and  Western  States.     (See  main  list  above.) 

2.  Achates  (General  Thomas  Pinckney)  :  Reflections  Occasioned 
by  the  Late  Disturbances  in  Charleston.    Charleston,  1822. 

3.  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Furman's  Exposition  of  the  Views  of  the 
Baptists  Relative  to  the  Colored  Population  in  the  United  States. 
(See  main  list  above.) 

4.  Practical  Considerations  Founded  on  the  Scriptures  Relative 
to  the  Slave  Population  of  South  Carolina.  By  a  South  Carolinian. 
Charleston,  1823. 

Nat  Turner 

1.  The  Confessions  of  Nat  Turner,  Leader  of  the  Late  Insurrec- 
tion in  Southampton,  Va.,  as  fully  and  voluntarily  made  to  Thos.  C. 
Gray,  in  the  prison  where  he  was  confined — and  acknowledged  by 
him  to  be  such,  when  read  before  the  court  at  Southampton,  con- 
vened at  Jerusalem  November  5,  1831,  for  his  trial.  (This  is  the 
main  source.  Thousands  of  copies  of  the  pamphlet  are  said  to  have 
been  circulated,  but  it  is  now  exceedingly  rare.  Neither  the  Con- 
gressional Library  nor  the  Boston  Public  has  a  copy,  and  Cromwell 
notes  that  there  is  not  even  one  in  the  State  Library  in  Richmond. 
The  copy  used  by  the  author  is  in  the  library  of  Harvard  University.) 

2.  Horrid  Massacre.  Authentic  and  Impartial  Narrative  of  the 
Tragical  Scene  which  was  witnessed  in  Southampton  County  (Vir- 
ginia) on  Monday  the  22nd  of  August  last.    New  York,  183 1.     (This 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  407 

gives  a  table  of  victims  and  has  the  advantage  of  nearness  to  the 
event.  This  very  nearness,  however,  has  given  credence  to  much 
hearsay  and  accounted  for  several  instances  of  inaccuracy.) 

To  the  above  may  be  added  the  periodicals  of  the  day,  such  as  the 
Richmond  Enquirer  and  the  Liberator;  note  Genius  of  Universal 
Emancipation,  September,  183 1.  Secondary  accounts  or  studies  would 
include  the  following: 

1.  Nat  Turner's  Insurrection,  exhaustive  article  by  Higginson 
(Atlantic,  VIII.  173)  later  included  in  Travellers  and  Outlaws. 

2.  Drewry,  William  Sidney:  Slave  Insurrections  in  Virginia 
(1830-1865).  A  Dissertation  presented  to  the  Board  of  University 
Studies  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  for  the  Degree  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy.  The  Neale  Company,  Washington,  1900.  (Unfor- 
tunately marred  by  a  partisan  tone.) 

3.  The  Aftermath  of  Nat  Turner's  Insurrection,  by  John  W. 
Cromwell,  in  Journal  of  Negro  History,  April,  1920. 

Amistad  and  Creole  Cases 

1.  Argument  of  John  Quincy  Adams  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  in  the  case  of  the  United  States,  Apellants,  vs. 
Cinque,  and  others,  Africans,  captured  in  the  Schooner  Amistad,  by 
Lieut.  Gedney,  delivered  on  the  24th  of  February  and  1st  of  March, 
1841.    New  York,  1841. 

2.  Africans  Taken  in  the  Amistad.  Document  No.  185  of  the  1st 
session  of  the  26th  Congress,  containing  the  correspondence  in  rela- 
tion to  the  captured  Africans.  (Reprinted  by  Anti-Slavery  Depos- 
itory, New  York,  1840.) 

3.  Senate  Document  51  of  the  2nd  session  of  the  27th  Congress. 

4.     On  Chapter  IX   (Liberia) 

Much  has  been  written  about  Liberia,  but  the  books  and  pamphlets 
have  been  very  uneven  in  quality.  Original  sources  include  the 
reports  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  to  1825;  The  African 
Repository,  a  compendium  issued  sometimes  monthly,  sometimes  quar- 
terly, by  the  American  Colonization  Society  from  1825  to  1892,  and 
succeeded  by  the  periodical  known  as  Liberia;  the  reports  of  the 
different  state  organizations;  J.  Ashmun's  History  of  the  American 
Colony  in  Liberia  from  December,  1821  to  1823,  compiled  from  the 
authentic  records  of  the  colony,  Washington,  1826;  Ralph  Randolph 
Gurley's  Life  of  Jehudi  Ashmun,  Washington,  1835,  second  edition, 
New  York,  1839;  Gurley's  report  on  Liberia  (a  United  States  state 
paper),  Washington,  1850;  and  the  Memorial  of  the  Semi-Centennial 
Anniversary  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  celebrated  at 
Washington,  January  15,  1867,  with  documents  concerning  Liberia, 
Washington,  1867;  to  all  of  which  might  be  added  Journal  of  Daniel 


408    SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO 

Coker,  a  descendant  of  Africa,  from  the  time  of  leaving  New  York, 
in  the  ship  Elizabeth,  Capt.  Sebor,  on  a  voyage  for  Sherbro,  in  Africa, 
Baltimore,  1820.  J.  H.  B.  Latrobe,  a  president  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  is  prominent  in  the  Memorial  volume  of  1867, 
and  after  this  date  are  credited  to  him  Liberia:  its  Origin,  Rise, 
Progress,  and  Results,  an  address  delivered  before  the  American 
Colonization  Society,  January  20,  1880,  Washington,  1880,  and  Mary- 
land in  Liberia,  Baltimore,  1885.  An  early  and  interesting  compila- 
tion is  G.  S.  Stockwell's  The  Republic  of  Liberia:  Its  Geography, 
Climate,  Soil,  and  Productions,  with  a  history  of  its  early  settlement, 
New  York,  1868;  a  good  handbook  is  Frederick  Starr's  Liberia,  Chi- 
cago, 1913;  mention  might  also  be  made  of  T.  McCants  Stewart's 
Liberia,  New  York,  1886;  and  George  W.  Ellis's  Negro  Culture  in 
West  Africa,  Neale  Publishing  Co.,  New  York,  1914,  is  outstanding 
in  its  special  field.  Two  Johns  Hopkins  theses  have  been  written: 
John  H.  T.  McPherson's  History  of  Liberia  (Studies,  IX,  No.  10), 
1891,  and  E.  L.  Fox's  The  American  Colonization  Society  1817-1840 
(Studies,  XXXVII,  9-226),  1919;  the  first  of  these  is  brief  and  clear- 
cut  and  especially  valuable  for  its  study  of  the  Maryland  colony. 
Magazine  articles  of  unusual  importance  are  George  W.  Ellis's 
Dynamic  Factors  in  the  Liberian  Situation  and  Emmett  J.  Scott's  Is 
Liberia  Worth  Saving?  both  in  Journal  of  Race  Development,  Jan- 
uary, 191 1.  Of  English  or  continental  works  outstanding  is  the 
monumental  but  not  altogether  unimpeachable  Liberia,  by  Sir  Harry 
H.  Johnston,  with  an  appendix  on  the  Flora  of  Liberia  by  Dr.  Otto 
Stapf,  2  vols.,  Hutchinson  &  Co.,  London,  1906;  while  with  a  strong 
English  bias  and  incomplete  and  unsatisfactory  as  a  general  treatise 
is  R.  C.  F.  Maughan's  The  Republic  of  Liberia,  London  (1920?), 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  Mention  must  also  be  made 
of  the  following  publications  by  residents  of  Liberia:  The  Negro 
Republic  on  West  Africa,  by  Abayomi  Wilfrid  Karnga,  Monrovia, 
1909;  New  National  Fourth  Reader,  edited  by  Julius  C.  Stevens, 
Monrovia,  1903;  Liberia  and  Her  Educational  Problems,  by  Walter 
F.  Walker,  an  address  delivered  before  the  Chicago  Historical  So- 
ciety, October  23,  1916;  and  Catalogue  of  Liberia  College  for  1916, 
and  Historical  Register,  printed  at  the  Riverdale  Press,  Brookline, 
Mass.,  1919;  while  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden's  Christianity,  Islam,  and 
the  Negro  Race  is  representative  of  the  best  of  the  more  philosophical 
dissertations. 


INDEX 


Abbeville,  S.  G,  345 
Aberdeen,  Lord,  189 
Abolition,  Abolitionists,   12,  35,  49, 

59-65,   76,   89,    101,    126,    149-150, 

219-227,  229-230,  237,  241,  247,  373 
Abraham,  Negro  interpreter,  106 
Abyssinia,  172 
Adams,  Doc,  274  ff. 
Adams,  Henry,  83 
Adams,  John,  78 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  102,  151-152, 

228 
Africa,  1-3,  6-9,  16,  17-20,  32,  35,  36, 

39,  43,  63,  68,   120-127,   134,   1^5, 

148,    161,    165,    166,    167,    172-212, 

225,  365-371,  375-379 
African        Methodist        Episcopal 

Church,  and   schools,  68-69,   I04» 

107,  240,  248,  251,  266 
African   Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 

Church,   and  schools,  69-70,   164, 

197,  266 
Age,  The  New  York,  330 
Aguinaldo,  115 
Akron,  Ohio,  317 
Alabama,  77,  91,  "7»  279,  289,  293, 

329 
Aldridge,  Ira,  251 
Allen,   Richard,  68-69,   74,    159-160, 

161,   162,  239-240,  372 
Alton,  111.,  216 
Ambrister,  Robert,  96 
Amendments    to     Constitution     of 

United  States,  255,  269,  270,  290, 

291,  299 
American      Anti-Slavery      Society, 

164,  168,  221,  260 
American    Baptist    Home    Mission 

Society,  265 
American   Baptist   Publication   So- 
ciety, 265 
American  Bar  Association,  343 
American  Colonization  Society,  120- 

127,   157,   159,   160,   163,   166,   172- 

212,  249 
American  Convention  of  Abolition 

Societies,  61,  76,  84 


American  Federation  of  Labor,  349 

American  Giants,  332 

American    Missionary    Association, 

265 
Amistad  Case,  148-152 
Anderson,  Benjamin,  195 
Andrew,  John  O.,  231 
Andrew,  William,  69 
Anthony,  Susan  B.,  168 
Anti-Slavery  societies,  219-221 
Appeal,    David    Walker's,    155-159, 

229 
Arbuthnot,  Alexander,  96 
Arkansas,  196,  236,  342,  360-363 
Arkwright,  Richard,  77 
Armstrong,  Samuel  C,  267,  305 
Asbury,  Bishop,  69 
Ashley,  Lord,  202 
Ashmun,  Jehudi,   180-186 
Assiento  Contract,  8,  14 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  291,  322,  327 
Atlanta  Compromise,  304,  337 
Atlanta  Massacre,  318-320,  326,  337, 

356 
Atlanta  University,  266,  267 
Attaway,  A.  T.,  274,  277 
Attucks,  Crispus,  56 
Augusta,  Ga.,  66,  88,  315 
Ayres,   Eli,   177-179,   182-183 

Bacon,  Ephraim,  176,  177 

Bacon,  John  F.,  153 

Bacon,  Samuel,  175,  176 

Baker,  F.  B.,  313 

Balboa,  4 

Baltimore,  52,  69,  157,  175,  245 

Banbaras,  17 

Bankson,  John,   175,  176 

Banneker,  Benjamin,  75 

Baptists,  churches  and  schools,  66- 

68,  77,  197,  209,  265-266 
Baptist  Young  People's  Union,  303 
Barbadoes,  9,  13,  15,  194 
Barbour,  Capt.,  185 
Barbour,  Dan,  344 
Barclay,  Arthur,  195,  200-201,  204- 

205 


4io 


INDEX 


Barlow,  Joel,  50 

Bassa  Trading  Association,  208 

Bassa  tribe,  173 

Bassett,  Ebenezer,  259 

Batson,  Flora,  308 

Baxter,  Richard,  34 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  223 

Behn,  Aphra,  213 

Belleau  Wood,  352 

Benedict  College,  266,  284 

Benefit  societies,  72-73,  241 

Benezet,  Anthony,  59,  74 

Bennett,  Batteau,  135,  139 

Bennett,  Gov.,  of  South  Carolina, 
137,    139 

Bennett,  Ned,  134,  135.  138,  139 

Bennett,  Rolla,  134,  135,  139 

Benson,  Stephen  Allen,  192-193,  203 

Berea  College,  266,  267 

Bethel  Church,  A.  M.  E.,  of  Phila- 
delphia, 69,  162 

Birmingham,  Ala.,  321,  347,  356 

Birney,  James  G.,  219,  220,  230 

"Birth  of  a  Nation,"  327,  343 

Bishop  College,  266 

Black  Codes,  267-268 

Black  Star  Line,  370 

Blacksmith,  Ben,  153 

Blackwood,  Jesse,  138,  139 

Blair,  Henry,  250 

Blanco,  Pedro,  202 

Bleckley,  L.  E.,  300 

Blunt,  John,  98 

Blyden,  Edward  Wilmot,  211 

Boatswain,  African  chief,  178-179 

Bogalusa,  La.,  349 

Boston,  Mass.,  72,  74,  152,  155,  157, 
159,   185,  233 

Boston  Massacre,  56 

Boston,  Samuel,  68 

Bouey,  H.  N.,  274  (note) 

Bourne,  E.  G.,  4 

Bowers,  John,  162 

Bowler,  Jack,  86,  87 

Boyd,  Henry,  244 

Brooks,  Preston  S.,  235 

Brooks  County,  Ga.,  302,  356-357 

Brough,  Charles  H.,  362,  363 

Brown,  Bishop,  of  Arkansas,  326 

Brown,  John,  223,  234,  237,  246 

Brown,  William,  360 

Brown,  William  Wells,  250-251 

Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett,  221 

Brownsville,  Texas,  333-334,  384 

Bruce,  Blanche  K.,  269 

Bryan,  Andrew,  66-68,  74 

Bryce,  James,  298 

Buchanan,  Thomas  H.,   188 

Bull,  Gov.,  of  South  Carolina,  42 


Bullock,  M.  W.,  332 

Burgess,  Ebenezer,  174,  175,  176 

Burleigh,  Harry  T.,  308 

Burning  of  Negroes,  33,  40,  47,  216- 

217,   295,   302,   317-318,   344,    356> 

387 
Burns,  Anthony,  233-234 
Burnside,  Gen.,  258 
Burton,   Belfast,   162 
Burton,    Mary,  44-47 
Business,  Negro,  307,  342 
Butler,  B.  F.,  District  Attorney^  in 

New  York,  150-151 
Butler,  B.  F.,  Gen.,  252,  265 
Butler,  M.  C,  276  ff. 
Butler,  Sol,  333 
Buttrick,  Wallace,  336 
Buzi  tribe,  173 
Byron,  Lord,  221 

Cable,  George  W.,  271   (note),  300 

Cadell,  Major,  205-206 

Caesar,  in  New  York,  44-47 

Calderon,  Spanish  minister,  149-152 

Caldwell,  Elias  B.,  124,  158 

Calhoun,  John  C,  128,  130 

Calvert,  George,  Lord  Baltimore, 
11 

Camp  Dodge,  351 

Camp  Grant,  352 

Camphor,  A.  P.,  210 

Canaan,  N.  H.,  school  at,  229-230 

Canada,  159,  164,  165,  235 

Canning,  George,  228 

Cape  Palmas,  186,  187 

Cardozo,  F.  L.,  274  (note) 

Carmantee  tribe,  40 

Carney,  William  H.,  257-258 

Carranza,  Andres  Dorantes  de,  5 

Carrizal,   350,  384 

Cartledge,  Lewis,  274 

Cary,  Lott,  68,  180,  181,  185 

Cass,  Lewis,  103 

Cassell,  Nathaniel  H.  B.,  211 

Catholics,  4 

Cato,  insurrectionist,  42-43 

Cato,  Will,  318 

Chain-gang,  293 

Challenge  Magazine,  364 

Chamberlain,  Gov.,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, 272,  274  (note) 

Champion,  James,  69 

Channing,  William  Ellery,  216,  221, 
230 

Charles  V,  4 

Charles,  Robert,  315-317 

Charleston,  S.  C,  40,  42,  80,  88, 
132-140,  224,  240,  245,  246,  272, 
313 


INDEX 


411 


Chateau  Thierry,  352 

Chavis,  John,  70,  74 

Cheeseman,  Joseph  James,  198 

Cherokees,  91,  101,  102,  114 

Chesnutt,  Charles  W.,  312 

Chester,  Penn.,  348 

Chicago  riot,  359"36o 

Chickasaws,  17,  91 

Child,  Lydia  Maria,  223 

China,  376 

Choctaws,  91 

Christianity,    25,    50,    156-158,    170- 

171,  218-219 
Christian  Recorder,  364 
Chuma,  375 

Cincinnati,  78,  164,  243-244 
Cinque,  Joseph,  148,  152 
Civil  Rights,  242,  269,  270,  342 
Civil  War,  252-261,  373,  374 
Claflin  University,  266 
Clansman,  The,  326,  343 
Clark,  Andrew,  357 
Clark,  Major,  357 
Clark  University,  266 
Clarkson,  Matthew,  74 
Clarkson,  Quamoney,  161 
Clarkson,  Thomas,  49,  120 
Clay,  Henry,  117,  124,  125-126,  130, 

157-158 
Cleveland,  Grover,  298 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  165 
Clinch,  Duncan  L.,  107,  no,  112 
Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  54 
Coatesville,  Penn.,  344 
Cockburn,  Sir  Francis,  153 
Coker,  Daniel,  69,  175-176 
Cole  and  Johnson  Company,  308 
Cole,  James,  147 
Coleman,   William   D.,    199 
Coleridge-Taylor,  Samuel,  308 
College  graduates,  267,  328,  343 
College  of  West  Africa,  210 
Colonization,    35,    69,    119,    120-127, 

134,    148,   157,    159,   160,   163,   166, 

172-212,  335 
Colored        Methodist        Episcopal 

Church,  and  schools,  266 
Compromise  of   1850,  165,  231 
Congregationalists,  265 
Connecticut,  12-13,  56,  64,  76,  164 
Constitution  of  the  United  States, 

56-59,  84,  220,  259,  269,  299 
Continental  Congress,  51,  57,  220 
Conventions,  159-167,  259,  279 
Convict  Lease  system,  293,  297.    See 

Peonage. 
Cook,  James,  278 
Cook,  O.  R,  198 
Coot,  insurrectionist,  88 


Cope,  Thomas  P.,  63 

Cordovell,  of  New  Orleans,  244 

Corey,  C.  H.,  285 

"Corkscrew"  lynching,  317-318 

Cornish,  Samuel  E.,  161 

Cotton-gin,  77 

Cowagee,  John,  114 

Cowley,  Robert,  162 

Cowper,  William,  48 

Cox,  Minnie,  313 

Coybet,  Gen.,  353 

Cranchell,  Caesar,  68 

Crandall,  Prudence,  164,  229 

Cravath,   E.   M.,  267 

Crawford,  Anthony,  344 

Crawford,  William,  125 

Creeks,    79,    91,     93,    94,    95,    96, 

99,  102,  107 
Creole  Case,  152-154 
Criminal,   Negro,   297-298,   326-327, 

386-387 
Crisis,  The,  338,  363,  364 
Crompton,  Samuel,  77 
Cross  Keys,  Va.,  140  ff. 
Crozer,  Samuel  A.,  175 
Crucifixion,  40 
Crum,  William  D.,  313 
Crummell,  Alexander,  165,  211 
Cuba,  5,  85,  151 

Cuffe,  Paul,  69,  123-124,  216,  241 
Cuffe,  Peter,  69 
Cuffee,  in  New  York,  44-47 
Curry,  J.  L.  M.,  336 
Curtis,  Justice,  234 
Cutler,  Manasseh,  57 

Dade,  Major,  112,  113 
Darien,  Ga.,  315 
Darkwater,  366,  368-369 
Davis,  Benjamin  O.,  352 
Declaration    of    Independence,    51, 

167,  374 
Declaration   of   Independence    (Li- 

berian),  190-191,  202 
Defender,  The,  363 
De  Grasse,  John  V.,  249 
Delany,  Martin  R.,  165-167,  247-248, 

249 
Delaware,  II,  148,  337 
Democrats,    78,    287,    288,   291,    298, 

3",  358 
Denmark,  8 

Dennison,  Franklin  A.,  352 
Derham,  James,  249 
Dew,  T.  R.,  128,  129 
Deys,     in     Africa,     178,     179,     181, 

186 
Dickens,  Charles,  221 
Dillard,  James  H.,  336 


412 


INDEX 


Disfranchisement,  287-291,  296,  303, 

342 
Dismond,  Binga,  333 
District  of  Columbia,  218,  259,  358 
Dixie  Kid,  332 
Dixon,  George,  332 
Dixon,  Thomas,  326 
Dorsey,  Hugh  M.,  294  (note) 
Dossen,  J.  J.,  200 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  233 
Douglass,    Frederick,    165,    239-240, 

241,  259,  300,  304,  381 
Douglass,  Robert,  161 
Dow,  Lorenzo,  90 
Dowdy,  Jim,  358 
Draft  Riot  in  New  York,  256 
Drake,  Francis,  7 
Drayton,  Congressman  from  South 

Carolina,  220 
Dred  Scott  Decision,  231,  234 
Drew,  Howard  P.,  333 
"Dreyfus,"  poem  by  Edwin  Mark- 
ham,  334-335 
DuBois,     W.     E.     Burghardt,     13 
(note),  264-265,  307-308,  320-321, 
325  (note),  327,  338-339,  365,  366, 
368-369,  381 
Dugro,  Justice  P.  H.,  330 
Dunbar,  Charles  B.,  200 
Dunbar,  Paul  L.,  308,  381 
Dunbar    Theater,    in    Philadelphia, 

342 
Duncan,  Otis  B.,  352 
Duncan,  William,  163 
Dunmore,  Lord,  53,  54 
Dunning,  W.  A.,  274  (note) 
Durham,  Clayton,  69 
Duties  on  importation  of  slaves,  12, 

14,  15,  43 
Duval,  William  P.,  97,  100,  108 
Dwight,  Gen.,  257 
Dyersburg,  Tenn.,  356 

Early  County,  Ga.,  344 
East  St.  Louis,  345-348,  354 
Eaton,  John,  Comm.  of  Education, 

266 
Eaton,  John  H.,  Secretary  of  War, 

101 
Econchattimico,  99,  109 
Education,  31,  35-37,  59-60,  67,  70, 

74,  164,  165,  246,  247-249,  264-267, 

270,    294,    300,    303-307,    327-328, 

335-336,  342-343 
Egypt,  2,  84,  225 
Elaine,  Ark.,  360-363 
El  Caney,  309 
Eliot,  John,  34 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  7 


Elliott,  Robert  B.,  269-270,  274 
(note) 

Emancipation,  252-255 

Emathla,  Charley,  in 

Emathlochee,  98 

Emerson,  Dr.,  234 

Empire  and  Commerce  in  Africa, 
366,  369 

England  (or  Great  Britain),  6-9,  14, 
15,  21,  23,  48,  84,  92-93,  96,  153- 
154,  178,  189,  191,  192,  198,  199, 
202-207,  221,  370-371,  375-379 

Episcopalians,  36,  68,  209,  231 

Erie  Railroad,  346 

Estevanico,  5-6 

Estill  Springs,  Tenn.,  356 

Etheridge,  at  Phcenix,  S.  C,  311 

Ethiopians,  2,  225 

Evans,  Lewis,  358 

Everett,  Alexander  H.,  224-226 

Everett,  Edward,  189 

Exodus,  Negro,  278-281.  See  also 
Migration. 

Faber,  F.  W.,  221 

Factories,  slave,  18 

Falkner,  Roland  P.,  201 

Federalists,  84 

Ferguson,  Frank,  134 

Ferguson,  Samuel  D.,  211 

Fernandina,  Fla.,  85 

Finley,  I.  F.  C,  187-188 

Finley,  Robert,  123,  124,  187 

First  African  Baptist  Church,  in 
Savannah,  67 

First  Bryan  Baptist  Church,  in  Sa- 
vannah, 66,  67 

Fish  War,  188 

Fisk  Jubilee  Singers,  267 

Fisk  University,  266,  267,  307,  343 

Fleet,  Dr.,  249 

Fleming,  W.  L.,  274  (note) 

Florida,  5,  16,  85,  91,  92,  93,  97, 
236,  302 

F.  M.  C.'s,  244-245 

Foraker,  J.  B.,  333-334 

Forrester,  Lot,  134 

Forsyth,  John,  149-150 

Fort  Brooke,  III,  112 

Fort  Gibson,  Ark.,  106,  107,  no 

Fort  Jackson,  treaty  of,  93 

Fort  King,  in 

Fort  Mims,  93 

Fort  Moultrie  (near  St.  Augustine), 
treaty  of,  95,  97-99,  102,  109 

Fort  Moultrie  (near  Charleston), 
114 

Fort  Pillow,  257,  258,  384 

Fort  Sam  Houston,  355 


INDEX 


413 


Fort  Wagner,  257,  384 

Forten,  James,  160,  161,  166 

Fortress  Monroe,  147,  252 

Foster,  Theodore,  63 

Fowltown,  95 

France,  8,  16,  48,  80-83,  92,  191,  192, 

203-207 
Francis,  Sam,  140  ff. 
Francis,  Will,  140  ff. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  49,  60 
Free  African  Society,  68-69 
Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  265 
Freedmen's  Bank,  265 
Freedmen's  Bureau,  264-265,  267 
Freedom's  Journal,  161,  241 
Freeman,  Cato,  68 
Free  Negroes,  26-31,  33-34,  36,  238 

ff.  esp.  244-245,  251  •  — 

Free-Soil  Party,  231 
Fremont,  John  C,  252 
Friends,  Society  of.     See  Quakers. 
Frissell,  Hollis  B.,  236 
Fugitive  Slave  Laws,  57,  59,  77-80, 

231,  232 
Fuller,  Meta  Warrick,  381 
Furman,  Richard,  128,  130 

Gabriel,  insurrectionist,  65,   76,  86, 

87,  121 
Gadsden,  James,  97,  103 
Gage,  Frances  D.,  168,  170,  171 
Gailliard,  Nicholas,  69 
Gaines,  Gen.,  94,  95 
Galilean  Fishermen,  241 
Galveston,  85 
Gans,  Joe,  332 

Gardiner,  Anthony  W.,  197,  203 
Garlington,  E.  A.,  333 
Garnett,  H.  HM  248,  259 
Garrison,    William   Lloyd,    126-127, 

163,  166,  219,  220-223,  226,  230 
Garvey,  Marcus,  370 
Gatumba,  Chief,   188 
Geaween,  John,  27 
Gell,  Monday,  134,  135,  136 
General  Education  Board,  335,  343 
Georgia,  14,  IS,  34,  52.  55,  57,  78, 

80,  85,  91,  92,  93,  96,  102,  290,  295, 

314,  318-320 
Georgia  Baptist,  338 
Georgia  Railroad  labor  trouble,  322- 

324 
Georgia,  University  of,  340 
Germans,    Germany,    12,    197,    201, 

377,  378 
Germantown  protest,  12,  35 
Gibbes,    Gov.,   of    South    Carolina, 

40-41,  42 
Gibson,  Garretson  W.,  199,  200 


Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  96  (note), 
108,  113,  154 

Gildersleeve,  Basil  L.,  298 

Giles,  Harriet  E.,  267 

Giles,  Jackson  W,  329 

Gilmer,  Congressman,  of  Georgia, 
96 

Gleaves,  R.  H.,  274  (note) 

Gloucester,  John,  70,  74,  161 

Gola  tribe,  186 

Gold  Coast,  211 

Gonzales,  3 

Goodspeed,  Dr.,  of  Benedict  Col- 
lege, 285 

Gorden,  Robert,  161 

Gordon,   Midshipman,   182 

Gourdin,  E.,  333 

Gradual  Emancipation,  64-65,  89, 
168 

Grady,  Henry  W.,  288 

Graeff,  Abraham  Op  den,  12 

Graeff,  Dirck  Op  den,  12 

Grand  Bassa,   186,   187 

"Grandfather  Clause/'  289-290,  342 

Grant,  U.  S.,  258 

Graves,  Samuel,  267 

Gray,  Thomas  C,   145 

Gray,  William,  74 

Great  War,  350-355,  373 

Grebo  tribe,  173,  196 

Greeley,  Horace,  253 

Greene,  Col.,  54 

Greenfield,  Elizabeth  Taylor,  251 

Greenleaf,  Prof.,  187 

Greenville,  in  Liberia,  186 

Grice,  Hezekiah,  162 

Groves,  Junius  C,  331 

Grundy,  Felix,  150 

Guardian,  The,  337 

Guerra,  Christobal  de  la,  3 

Guerra,  Luis  de  la,  3 

Guinea  Coast,  3,  6,  43 

Gullah  Jack,  134  ff. 

Gurley,  R.  R.,  184 

Had  jo,  Micco,  92 

Hajo,  Tuski,  98 

Hall,  James,  187 

Hall,  Prince,  71-72,  240,  372 

Hallowell,  Edward  N.,  261 

Hallowell,  N.  P.,  260 

Hamburg   Massacre,  274-278 

Hampton  Institute,  266,  267,  305 

Hampton,  Wade,  287 

Harden,  Henry,  69 

Hargreaves,  James,  77 

Harper,  in  Liberia,  184  (note),  186 

Harper,  F.  E.  W.,  250 

Harper's  Ferry,  237 


4H 


INDEX 


Harris,  Arthur,  317 
Harris,  John  M.,  203 
Harris,  William  T.,  300 
Harrison,  Benjamin,  300 
Harrison,  William  Henry,  244 
Harrison    St.    Baptist    Church,    of 

Petersburg,  Va.,  66 
Harry,   Negro  in    Seminole  Wars, 

112 
Hart,  A.  B„  230 
Hartford,  Conn.,  346 
Harth,  Mingo,  137 
Hartshorn  Memorial  College,  266 
Harvard  University,  231,  250,  307 
Haussas,  1 
Havana,  85,  148 
Havelock,  A.  E.,  203 
Hawkins,  John,  6-7 
Hawkins,  William,  6 
Hayes,  R.  B.,  287 
Haygood,  Atticus  G.,  299 
Hayne,  Robert  Y.,  126,  128,  138 
Haynes,  George  E.,  349 
Haynes,  Lemuel,  70 
Hayti,   72,   76,  80-84,   86,    167,    172, 

259,  34i,  366 
Heber,  Reginald,  221 
Helper,  Hinton  Rowan,  236 
Hendericks,  Garret,  12 
Henry,  Prince,  of  Portugal,  3 
Henry,  Patrick,  49 
Hewell,  John  R.,  152,  153 
Hicks,  John,  101,  107 
Higginson,      Thomas     Wentworth, 

135  (note),  146  (note),  233,  261 
Hill,  Arnold,  359 
Hill,  Stephen,  69 
Hoar,  Samuel,  228 
Hodge,  F.  W.,  5.  (note) 
Hoffman,  Frederick  L.,  299 
Hogg,  Robert,  and  Mrs.  Hogg,  44- 

45 
Holbert,  Luther,  317-318 
Holland,  8 
Holland,  Edwin  C,  88  (note),  118, 

129 
Holly,  James  Theodore,  167 
Homer,  2 

Hopkins,  Samuel,  120 
Horsemanden,  Judge,  44  (note) 
Horseshoe  Bend,  79,  93 
Horton,  George  M.,  250 
Hose,   Sam,  314 
Houston,  Texas,  354-355 
Howard,  Daniel  Edward,  201 
Howard,  O.  O.,  264 
Howard  University,  266 
Howells    William  Dean,  308 
Howze,  Alma,  357 


Howze,  Maggie,  357 
Hughes,  Charles  E.,  291 
Hughson,  John,  44-47 
Hughson,  Sarah,  44-47 
Hugo,  Victor,  221 
Humphreys,  Gad,  97,  99-101,  106 
Hunter,  David,  252-253 

Illinois,  77,  291 
Impending  Crisis,  The,  236 
Indenture.    See  Servitude. 
Indiana,  77,  279,  291 
Indians,  12,  25,  89,  91-115 
Indian  Spring,  treaty  of,  95,  96 
Informer,  The  Houston,  364 
Insurrections,  17,  39-44,  86-90,  132- 

J54 
Intermarriage,  Racial  intermixture, 
17,  24,  29-31,  242 

Jackson,  Andrew,  79,  93,  94,  95-°A 

101-102,  106,  107,  125 
Jackson  College,  266 
Jackson,   Edward,  69 
Jackson,  Francis,  242 
Jackson,  James,  78 
Jackson,  Peter,  332 
Jacksonville,  Fla.,  346 
Jamaica,  49,  64,  67,  377 
James,  David,  35 
James,  Duke  of  York,  8,  23 
Jamestown,  5,  9 
Japan,  376,  377 
Jasper,  John,  382 
Jay,  John,  60 
Jay,  William,  223 
Jeanes,  Anna  T.,  336 
Jeanes  Fund,  336 
Jefferson,    Thomas,    50-51,    56,    84, 

118,  12 1- 122,  124,  128 
Jennings,  Thomas  L.,  162 
Jessup,  Thomas  S.,  113-114 
"Jim  Crow,"  origin  of,  214-215 
Jocelyn,  S.  S.,  163 
John,  in  Fugitive  Slave  case,  79 
Johnson,  Andrew,  268,  269 
Johnson,    Elijah,    179-180,   181,    182, 

198 
Johnson,  Henry,  352 
Johnson,  H.  R.  W.,  196  (note),  198 
Johnson,  Jack,  332 
Johnson,  James,  161 
Johnson,  Joseph,  68 
Johnston    brothers,    of    Arkansas, 

363 
Johnston,  E.  L.,  357 
Johnston,  Sir  Harry  H.,  205 
Jones,  Abraham,  68,  69,  73,  74,  161 
Jones,  Eugene  K.,  339 


INDEX 


415 


Jones,  George,  217 
Jones,  Sam,  107 
Jones,  Sissieretta,  308 
Julius,  John,  244 

Kali,  in  Amistad  case,  152  ,       / 
Kansas,   196,  231,  233,  27$,  280-281 
Kansas  City,  dynamiting  of  homes 

in,  343 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  231,  233 
Kean,  Edmund,  251 
Kentucky,  78,  161 
Kerry,  Margaret,  44-47 
King,  C.  D.  B.,  201,  207  (note) 
King,  Mulatto,  98 
King,  Rufus,  121,   122 
Kizell,  John,  174,  175-176 
Knights  of  Pythias,  241 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  272 
Knoxville  College,  266 
Knoxville  riot,  360 
Kpwessi  tribe,   173 
Kru  tribe,  173,  185,  188,  197 
KuKlux    Klan,    264,    272-278,    355, 

373 

Labor,  318,  320-325,  345-349,  384 

Lafar,  John  J.,   134 

Laing,  Major,  182 

Lake  City,  S.  C,  313 

Lane  College,  266 

Lane  Seminary,  164,  247 

Langston,  John  Mercer,  247,  259 

Las  Quasimas,  309 

Laurens,  Henry,  50-51,  54 

Laurens,  John,  55 

Law,  John,  16 

Lawless,  Judge,  216 

Le  Clerc,  Gen.,  83 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  253,  263 

Lee  County,  Ga.,  344 

Leicester,  Earl  of,  7 

Leland  Giants,  332 

Lewis,  William  H.,  332,  342 

Liberator,  The,  126,  220,  222,  260 

Liberia,  69,  86,   123,   127,   160,   172- 

212,  259,  278,  378 
Liberia  College,  194,  210-21 1 
Liberian   Exodus   and   Joint    Stock 

Company,  197 
Liberty  Party,  230 
Liele,  George,  67 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  216-217,  233,  252- 

255,  257,  259,  387 
Lincoln   Giants,  332 
Lincoln  University,  247,  266 
Livingstone  College,  266 
Livingstone,  David,  375,  376 
Lockwood,  L.  C,  265 


London  Company,  22 

Louisiana,  16-17,  80,  83-84,  88,  117, 

122,   159,   196,  244,  251,  255,  260, 

267,  273,  278,  279,  287,  289,  301, 

317 
Louis  Napoleon,  192 
Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  216,  223 
Lowell,  James  R.,  231-232 
Lugard,  Lady,  2 
Lundy,  Benjamin,  163,  220 
Lutherans,  209 
Lynching,  216-217,  294-295,  301-302, 

3i3-3i8,  343-345,  356-358,  387 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  221 

Macon,  Ga.,  147-148,  346 

Madagascar,  15,  17 

Madison,  James,  85 

Mahan,  Asa,  247 

Maine,  77,  117 

Malays,   17 

Maldonado,    Alonzo    del    Castillo, 

5-6 
Mandingoes,  1,  2,  173,  195 
Manly,  Alex.  L.,  311-312 
Mano  tribe,  173 
Mansfield,  Lord,  49,  120 
Marcos,  Fray,  6 
Markham,  Edwin,  334 
Marriage,  37 

Marrow  of  Tradition,  The,  312 
Marshall,  J.  F.  B.,  305 
Marshall,  J.  R.,  309 
Marshall,   of   Univ.   of   Minnesota, 

333 
Martin,  Luther,  58 
Maryland,   II,  29-30,  54,  58,  61,  63, 

148,  166,  256,  290,  342 
Mason,  George,  58 
Masons,  Negro,  70-72,  240-241 
Massachusetts,  9-10,  15,  32,  33,  53, 

54,   56,  60,  64,  77,  228,  242,  337, 

342 
Mather,  Cotton,  34,  37-39,  ^ 
Matthews,  W.  C,  332 
May,  Samuel  J.,  223,  230 
Mazzini,  G.,  221 
McCorkle,  William  A.,  335 
Mcllheron,  Jim,  356 
Mcintosh,  burned,  216-387 
McKay,  Claude,  365 
McKelway,  A.  J.,  312,  320 
Medicine,  Negro  in,  248-250,  328 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  268,  356 
Mercer,  Charles  F.,  124 
Messenger,  The,  364 
Methodists,   churches   and   schools, 

52,  69,  77,  209,  219,  231,  265,  266. 

See  also  African  Methodist. 


416 


INDEX 


Mexican  War,  231 

Metz,  352 

Micanopy,   106,  HO 

Mickasukie  tribe,  92 

Migration,    336-337,    345-349-      See 

also  Exodus. 
Milan,   Ga.,   358 
Milliken's  Bend,  257 
Mills,  Samuel  J.,  123,  174,  175,  176 
Minstrelsy,  215-216 
Miscegenation.     See  Intermarriage, 

Racial  intermixture. 
Mississippi,  77,  78,  186,  267,  268,  278, 

279,  2%),  295,  301,  303,  310,  317, 

325,  337,  359 
Mississippi  Company,  16 
Missouri,  117,  236,  256,  279 
Missouri  Compromise,  116-119,  128, 

134,  233 
Mobile,  93,  94  (note),  245 
Mohammedans,  4 
Monroe,  James,  87,  121,  124,  174 
Monrovia,  177,  184  ff. 
Montes,  Pedro,  148-152 
Montgomery,  Ala.,  335 
Montgomery,  James,  221 
Monticello,  Ga.,  344 
Montserado,  Cape,  177  ff. 
Moore,  Joanna  P.,  281-286 
Moorhead,  Scipio,  75 
Moors,  4,  17 

Morehouse  College,  266,  269,  284 
Morell,  Junius  C,  162 
Morgan,  Thomas  J.,  258  (note^ 
Morris  Brown  University,  266 
Morris,  Edward  H.,  332 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  58 
Morris,  Robert,  Jr.,  248 
Mortality,  327,  328 
Mott,  Lucretia,  167 
Mulattoes,  25,   26-31,  213,   244-245, 

327,  330-331 
Mumford,  John  P.,  123 
"Mungo,"  in  The  Padlock,  214 
Murphy,  Edgar  G.,  326 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  83,  84,  89 

Narvaez,  Pamfilo  de,  5 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  279 

Nassau,  153,  154 

National  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Colored  People, 
338-339 

National  Urban  League,  165  (note), 
339,  343,  348,  359 

Navigation  Ordinance,  8 

Nea  Mathla,  98,  99 

Neau,  Elias,  36 

Negro,  the  word,  3 


Negro  Union,  69 

Negro  World,  The,  364,  370 

Nell,  William  C,  165,  248 

New  Bedford,  Mass.,  241 

New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society, 

220 
New  Hampshire,  13,  64 
New  Jersey,  II,  59,  60,  63,  64,  291, 

342 
New  Orleans,   16,  84,  94,   109,  240, 

244-245,  268-269,  284,  3I5-3-I7,  321 
New  Mexico,  6 
New  York  (city),  36,  40,  43-47,  72, 

120,  157,  164,  242,  247,  256,  317 
New  York  (state),  36,  55,  56,  60,  61, 

63,  64,  166,  186,  236,  291,  342 
News  and  Courier,  of  Charleston, 

S.  C,  272,  314 
Niagara  Movement,  338 
Niles,  Hezekiah,  89-90 
Nino,   Pedro  Alonso,  3 
Norfolk,  Va.,  140,  245 
North  Carolina,  13,  58,  77,  196,  236, 

271,  279,  289,  293,  310,  311,  327 
Northrup,  Solomon,  217 
North  Star,  241 
Northwest  Territory,  24,  56-57,  80, 

84 
Nott,  Josiah  C,  213 
Nott,  Dr.,  of  Union  College,   118- 

119 
Nullification,  101,  228 
Nunn,  Joseph,  242 

Oberlin  College,  247 

Odd  Fellows,  241,  342 

Ogden,  Peter,  241 

Ogden,  Robert  C,  336 

Oglethorpe,  James,  14,  34 

Ohio,  77,  80,  154,  161,  291 

Oklahoma,  290,  340 

Omaha,  301,  360 

Orange   Park  Academy,  302 

Osceola,  92,    107-115 

Otis,  James,  49 

Otis,  Mayor,  of  Boston,  159 

Ouithlecoochee,    Battle   of,    113 

Ovando,  4 

Packard,  Sophia  B.,  267 
Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  299,  326 
Page,  Walter  H.,  300 
Palmer,  B.  M.,  128,  235-236 
Palmetto,  Ga.,  314 
Pan-African  Congress,  365 
Pappa  tribe,  40 
Parker,  Theodore,  223,  233 
Parrott,  Russell,  160,  161 
Pastorius,  Francis  Daniel,   12 
Patterson,    Joseph,    329-330 


INDEX 


417 


Paul,  William,  137-138 

Payne,  Daniel  A.,  248 

Payne,  James  Spriggs,  194,  196 

Payne's  Landing,  treaty  of,  Q9, 
103-105,  107,  109,  no 

Peabody  Educational  Fund,  336 

Peabody,  George  Foster,  336 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  7 

Pennington,  James  W.  C,  162,  165, 
239,  242,  248,  259 

Pennsylvania,  n-12,  32,  35,  52,  56, 
60,  61,  63,  64,  76,  79,  166,  186, 
291 

Pennsylvania  Railroad,  346 

Pensacola,  5 

Peonage,  268,  291-293,  294  (note), 
297,  306,  329,.  344,  353,  360-363 

Perkins,  Francis,  161 

Perry,  Bliss,  226-227 

Person,  Ell  T.,  356 

Petersburg,  Va.,  88,   184,  258 

Phagan,  John,  106,  107 

Phelps,  John  W.,  253 

Phelps-Stokes    Fellowships,  339 

Philadelphia,  35,  59,  63,  68,  69,  73, 
74,  157,  160,  162,  166,  243,  246,  326, 
342,  348 

Phillips,  Wendell,  223,  233 

Phipps,  Benjamin,  145,  146 

Phoenix  societies,  164 

Pierce,  Leonard,  315 

Pike,  in  Brooks  County,  Ga.,  302 

Pittman,  W.  Sydney,  332 

Pittsburgh,  Penn.,  240,  244,  250 

Plangiancois,  Anselmas,  257 

Pleasants,  Robert,  50 

Pollard,  F.,  333 

Poor,  Samuel,  56 

Poor  white  man,  as  related  to  Ne- 
gro, 33,  129,  323-324,  349 

Population,  Negro,  15,  32,  118,  119, 
128,  247,  337 

Populist  Party,  288 

Port  Hudson,  257,  384 

Porter,  Henry,  140  ff. 

Portugal,  3,  6 

Potter,  James,  68 

Powell.    See  Osceola. 

Poyas,  Peter,  134-139 

Presbyterians,  70,  231,  265,  266 

Price,  Arthur,  44-47 

Prince,  44-47 

Princeton,  N.  J.,  123 

Problem,  Negro.  See  Table  of 
Contents. 

Progressive  Party,  343 

Punishment,  33,  41,  42,  47,  87-88, 
139-140,  146,  216.  See  also  Lynch- 
ing,  Burning. 


Purcell,  Jack,  134,  135  (note) 
Puritans,  34,  35 


Quack,  in  New  York,  44-47 
Quakers,   12,  34"35,   59"6o,  84,   168, 

169,  226,  283 
Queen      and      Crescent      Railroad 

trouble,  343 
Quinn,  William  Paul,  240,  248 

Randolph,  John,  124,  158 

Reconstruction,  262-286 

Reed,  Paul,  318 

Reese,  Jack,  140  ff. 

Republic  of  Liberia,  The,  366,  367 

Republican  Party,  233,  273,  290 

Reuter,  E.  B.,  327,  330 

Revels,  Hiram  R.,  269 

Review    of    Reviews,    quoted,    300, 

309-310 
Revolutionary   War,   24,   30,   52-56, 

58,  64,  66,  68,  74,  76,  78,  120 
Revolution,  French,  48,  80,  128,  221 
Rhode  Island,  13,  43,  53,  54,  55,  56> 

64,  76 
Rhodes,  Cecil,  376,  378 
Rice,  Thomas  D.,  214 
Richmond,  Va.,  68,  87,  140,  152 
Rigaud,  82 
Rising    Tide    of    Color,    The,    366, 

367-36S 
Rivers,   P.   R.,  275-276 
Robert,  Joseph  T.,  284 
Roberts,    Joseph     Jenkin,     189-190, 

192-193,  194,  196,  202,  210 
Robeson,  P.  L.,  333 
Rockefeller,  John  D.,  335 
Romanticism,    48,    221 
Romme,  John,  44-47 
Roosevelt,   Theodore,  313,  333-334 
Ross,  John,  114 
Royal   African   Company,  8 
Roye,  Edward  James,  195-196,  204 
Ruffin,   George  L.,  259 
Ruiz,  Jose,  148-152 
Rush,  Christopher,  164 
Russell,  Alfred  F.,  197-198 
Russwurm,  John  B.,  161,  187,  189 
Rust  University,  266 
Rutledge,  John,  53 

St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  16,  97,  99,  114 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  216,  240 

St.  Mihiel,  352 

St.  Philip's  Church,  in  New  York, 

162 
St.  Thomas's  Episcopal  Church,  in 

Philadelphia,  69 
Sale,  George,  201 


4i8 


INDEX 


Salem,  Peter,  56 

Samba,  insurrectionist,  17 

Sandford    (in    Dred    Scott    Case), 

234 
San  Juan  Hill,  309,  384 
Santiago,  309,  384 
Santo  Domingo,  5,  7,  80-84,  88,  121, 

132,  134 
Sargent,  Frank  P.,  321 
Savannah,  Ga.,  66-68,  159,  346 
Schurz,  Carl,  269 
Scott,   Emmett  J.,  201,  278   (note), 

351 
Scott,  Lation,  356 
Scott,  Walter,  128 
Seaton,  Richard,  182 
Sebastian,  40 

Sebor,  Capt.,  175   (note),  176 
Secoffee,  92 

Secret  societies,  70-72,  240-241 
Segui,   Bernard,  97 
Selika,  Mme.,  308 
Seminole  Wars,  91-115 
Servitude,  9,  10,  21-26 
Seward,   William   H.,   255 
Seyes,  John,   188 
Shadd,  Abraham,  163 
Sharp,  Granville,  120 
Shaw,  Robert  Gould,  260-261 
Shaw  Monument,  262 
Shaw  University,  266,  284 
Shepherd,  Randall,  161 
Sheridan.  Philip,  269 
Shubuta,   Miss.,  357 
Shufeldt,   R.   W.,  32S 
Sierra    Leone,    120,    122,    123,    124, 

152,   174,   176,   177,   178,   179,   188, 

203,  211,  377 
Silver  Bluff  Church,  66 
Simon,  37 

Singleton,  Benjamin,  279 
Sino,  in  Liberia,  186,  187 
Slater  Fund,  336 
Slavery.     See  Table  of  Contents. 
Slave  Ships,  17-19,  85 
Smith,  Adam,  49 
Smith,  Alfred,  332 
Smith,  Edward  P.,  360 
Smith,  Gerrit,  119,  230 
Smith,  Hampton,  356 
Smith,  Henry,  302 
Smith,  Hoke,  290,  318 
Smith,  James  McCune,  165,  249 
Smith,   Stephen,  243 
Smith,  W.  B.,  325 
Social  Progress,  32,  66-75,  238-251 
Socialism,  322,  364 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 

Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  36 


Soldier,  Negro,  52-56,  94  (note), 
245,    252-261,    309-310,    333-335 

Somerset,  James,  48-49 

Soulouque,   Faustin,   167 

Souls  of  Black  Folk,  The,  327 

South  Carolina,  12,  13,  14,  15,  33, 
40,  41,  52,  54,  55,  57,  77,  80,  93, 
101,  132-140,  156,  197,  227-228, 
249,  256,  267,  272,  273-278,  289, 
295,  303,  3io,  322,  337,  364 

South  Carolina  Medical  College, 
224 

Southern  Education  Board,  335 

Southern  Educational  Congress, 
335 

Southern  Sociological  Congress, 
340 

Southerne,  Thomas,  213 

Southwestern  Christian  Advocate, 
301,  364 

Spain,  3-6,  149-15 1 

Spaniards,  3-6,  16,  93 

Spanish-American  War,  309-310 

Spanish  Exploration,  3-6* 

Spelman  Seminary,  266,  267 

Spence,  R.  T.,  182 

Spencer,  Peter,  69 

Sport,  332-333 

Springfield,  111.,  318 

Stanton,  Elizabeth  Cady,  167 

Statesville,  Ga.,  318 

Stephens,  Alexander,  236,  270 

Stevens,  Julius  C,  199 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  269 

Steward,  Austin,  162 

Stewart,  Charles,  48-49 

Stewart,  T.  McC,  274  (note) 

Stiles,   Ezra,   120 

Stoddard,  Lothrop,  366,  367-368 

Stone,  Lucy,  168 

Stockton,  Robert  F.,  177 

Stone,  Alfred  H.,  327 

Storey,  Moorfield,  338 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  223,  232- 
233 

Straight  University,  266 

Straker,  D.  A.,  274  (note) 

Students'  Army  Training  Corps, 
352 

Summersett,  John,   161 

Sumner,   Charles,  223,  259,  269 

Supreme  Court,  234,  269,  287,  290, 
329,  342 

Susi,  375 

Taft,  W.   H.,  351 
Talladega,  Ala.,  79,  93 
Talladega  College,  266 
Tallahassee,  Fla.,  92,  99 


INDEX 


419 


Taney,  R.  B.,  234 

Tanner,   Henry  O.,  308,  381 

Tappan,  Arthur,  163,  230 

Tappan,  Lewis,  152,  230,  265 

Tapsico,  Jacob,  69 

Taney,  Chief  Justice,  234 

Taylor,  John  B.,  333 

Taylor,  Major,  333 

Taylor,  William,  249 

Tecumseh,  93,  148 

Tennessee,  78,  91,  96,  236,  256,  279, 

290 
Terrell,   Mary  Church,  332 
Terrell,  J.  M.,  319 
Texas,  165,  231,  236,  278,  279,  293, 

295,  343,  359 
Thomas,   Charles,  37 
Thomas,  W.  H.,  325 
Thompson,   George,  221,  230 
Thompson,  Wiley,  107,  108,  no,  in, 

112 
Thornton,  William,  120 
Thoughts  on  African  Colonisation, 

.I27 
Tillman,   Benjamin   R.,  289,  290 
Tithables,  defined,  27  (note) 
Tolbert,  John  R.,  310,  311 
Tolbert,  R.  R.,  310 
Tolbert,  Thomas,  311 
Toombs,  Robert,  128,  238 
Toussaint   L'Ouverture,  80-84,    115, 

330,  366 
Travis,  Hark,  140  ff. 
Travis,  Joseph,  140,  141,  142 
Tremont    Temple    Baptist   Church, 

219 
Trotter,  Monroe,  337 
Truth,  Sojourner,  167-171,  330 
Tubman,  Harriet,  382 
Tucker,  St.  George,  89 
Tupper,  Pres.,  of  Shaw  University, 

284 
Turnbull,  Robert  James,  220 
Turner,  H.  M.,  197 
Turner,   Mary,  357 
Turner,  Nat,  and  his  insurrection, 

70,    86,    108,    132,    140-148,    155, 

229,  373 
Tuskegee  Institute,  305-307 
Tustenuggee,   114 


Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  232-233,  236 
Underground  Railroad,  233,  382 
Universal  Negro  Improvement  As- 
sociation, 370 
Universal  Races  Congress,  365 
University   Commission   on    South- 
ern Race  Questions,  340 


Ury,  John,  44-47 
Utrecht,  Peace  of,  14 

Vaca,  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza  de,  5-6 

Vail,  Aaron,  150 

Vai  tribe,  173 

Valdosta,  Ga.,  357 

Valladolid,  Juan  de,  3 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  151 

Vardaman,  James  K.,  290,  325,  336 

Varick,  James,  69-70 

Vermont,  63 

Vesey,  Denmark,  and  his  insurrec- 
tion, 86,  118,  132-140,  155,  227* 

Vincenden,  Gen.,  353 

Virginia,  9,  15,  23,  24,  28,  32,  34, 
35,  40,  51,  52,  53,  54,  55,  56,  58, 
60,  63,  67,  76,  79,  86-89,  122,  140- 

I48,     159,    l66,    236,    255,    289,    2Q2, 

Virginia  Union  University,  266 

Virginia,  University  of,  128,  340 

Virgin  Islands,  365 

Vogelsang,   Peter,   162 

Voice  of  the  Negro,  The,  337,  338 

Vosges,  352 

Waco,  Texas,  344 
Walcott,  Joe,  332 
Walker,   John,   109 
Walker,  Mme.  C.  J.,  342 
Walker,  David,   155-159,  229 
Walker,  Walter  F.,  210 
Walker,  Zach,  344 
War  of   1812,  93,  94 
Ward,  Samuel  Ringgold,  248 
Ware,  Asa,  267,  284 
Warner,  Daniel  Bashiel,   194 
Washington,  Berry,  358 
Washington,    Booker    T.,    303-307, 

313,  327,  337,  35i,  373 
Washington,  Bushrod,  125 
Washington,  George,  50,  53,  54,  55, 

128 
Washington,  Jesse,  344 
Washington,  Madison,  153 
Washington,  D.  C,  218,  256,  358 
Watson,    Brook,    75 
Watt,  James,  77 
Watterson,   Henry,  299 
Weathersford,  93 
Webster,    Daniel,    153 
Webster,  Thomas,  69 
Wendell,  Abraham,  150 
Wesley,  John,  49 
West    Virginia,    24,    255 
Wheatley,  Phillis,  75 
Whipper,  of  Pennsylvania,  244 
Whipper,  William,  163 


420 


INDEX 


White,  George  H.,  289 

White,  Thomas  J.,  249 

White,  William,  68 

White,  William  J.,  338 

Whitfield,   James    M.,    165,    167 

Whittekin,  F.  R,  198 

Whitney,  Eli,  77 

Whittier,  John  G.,  223,  226-227 

Wiener,  Leo,  2  (note),  3 

Wilberforce  University,  247,  266 

Wilberforce,  William,  49,  120 

Wilcox,  Samuel  T.,  244 

Wild  Cat,  114  . 

Wiley  University,  266 

Will,  27 

William  and  Mary  College,  128 

Williams  and  Walker  Company,  308 

Williams,  Charles  H.,  354  (note) 

Williams,  Daniel  H.,  332 

Williams,  George  W.,  64  (note)  and 

Preface 
Williams,  Nelson,  140  ff. 
Williams,  Peter,  162,  164 
Williams,  Richard,  69 


Williamsburg,  Va.,  41,  66,  74 

Williamson,  Edward,  69 

Wilmington,   N.   C,   147,  311-312 

Wilson,  James,  59 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  291,  366 

Winn,  J.  B.,  176 

Woman's  American  Baptist  Home 

Mission  Society,  284 
Woman  Suffrage,  167-171 
Woods,  Granville   T.,  332 
Woodson,    Carter    G.,   246    (note), 

249  (note) 
Woolf,  Leonard,  366,  369 
Woolman,   John,   59 
Wright,   Robert,   124 
Wycliffe,    John    C,    299 

Yellow   fever,  in   Philadelphia,  73- 

74;  in  Hayti,  83 
Yemassee,  92 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  351,  354 
Young,  Charles  E.,  206,  309,  352 

Zuni  Indians,  6  *aAi> 


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